France and the Occupation

The accepted version of France’s period of Occupation was of heroic resistance fighters against contemptible collaborators, like Prime Minister Pierre Laval or the pro-German milice. But was it like that? Evidence has emerged since the 1970s of how many ordinary French people collaborated willingly with the Germans, even handing over Jews who had fled to France as a land of refuge. The Resistance was so deeply split that the Liberation risked sparking off civil war. We consider the complex reality behind the story of France under German Occupation, and how it changed the course of modern French history.