World War II

In May, 1940, Germany invaded France. By June, France was near defeat. Marshal Henri Pétain, a hero of World War I, became premier. On June 22 the Pétain government signed a treaty with Germany in Compiègne Forest in the railway car where Germany signed the 1918 armistice. France was divided into occupied and unoccupied zones. An authoritarian government under Pétain was established at Vichy in unoccupied France. Pétain and Pierre Laval, the vice premier, advocated full collaboration with the Germans.

Some French troops had escaped with the British forces at Dunkirk. General Charles de Gaulle used these as a nucleus for his Free French (later Fighting French) army. This was a rallying point for French people who escaped from the home country. Inside France, the Maquis (underground guerrilla fighters) resisted the Nazis. The Maquis later became the F.F.I. (French Forces of the Interior) and were equipped with arms parachuted from Allied planes.

While the Allies were preparing to liberate France, Laval assumed more and more power in the Vichy government. Pétain became a mere figurehead. In 1942 the Germans occupied the rest of France and the Vichy government was moved to Germany.

Allied forces landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944. The F.F.I. rose throughout France to aid the Allies. Paris fell to the Allies on August 20. A provisional government, headed by de Gaulle, then assumed power. Frenchmen who had collaborated with the Nazis were brought to trial. Laval was convicted and put to death in 1945. Pétain was sentenced to life imprisonment.