The
agonies
of
World
War
II
were
compounded
for
France
by
the
additional
traumas
of
occupation,
collaboration
and
Resistance
-
in
effect,
a
civil
war.
After
the
1940
defeat
of
the
Anglo-French
forces
in
France,
Maréchal
Pétain
,
a
cautious
and
conservative
veteran
of
World
War
I,
emerged
from
retirement
to
sign
an
armistice
with
Hitler
and
head
the
collaborationist
Vichy
government
,
which
ostensibly
governed
the
southern
part
of
the
country,
while
the
Germans
occupied
the
strategic
north
and
the
Atlantic
coast.
Pétain's
prime
minister,
Laval,
believed
it
his
duty
to
adapt
France
to
the
new
authoritarian
age
heralded
by
the
Nazi
conquest
of
Europe.
There
has
been
endless
controversy
over
who
collaborated,
how
much
and
how
far
it
was
necessary
in
order
to
save
France
from
even
worse
sufferings.
One
thing
at
least
is
clear:
Nazi
occupation
provided
a
good
opportunity
for
the
Maurras
breed
of
out-and-out
French
fascist
to
go
on
the
rampage,
tracking
down
Communists,
Jews,
Resistance
fighters,
freemasons
-
indeed
all
those
who,
in
their
demonology,
were
considered
"alien"
bodies
in
French
society.
While
some
Communists
were
involved
in
the
Resistance
right
from
the
start,
Hitler's
attack
on
the
Soviet
Union
in
1941
freed
the
remainder
from
ideological
inhibitions
and
brought
them
into
the
movement
on
a
large
scale.
Resistance
numbers
were
further
increased
by
young
men
taking
to
the
hills
to
escape
conscription
as
labour
in
Nazi
industry.
Général
de
Gaulle's
radio
appeal
from
London
on
June
18,
1940,
rallied
the
French
opposed
to
right-wing
defeatism
and
resulted
in
the
Conseil
National
de
la
Résistance,
unifying
the
different
Resistance
groups
in
May
1943.
The
man
to
whom
this
task
had
been
entrusted
was
Jean
Moulin,
shortly
to
be
captured
by
the
Gestapo
and
tortured
to
death
by
Klaus
Barbie,
who
was
convicted
as
recently
as
1987
for
his
war
crimes.
Although
British
and
American
governments
found
him
irksome,
de
Gaulle
was
able
to
impose
himself
as
the
unchallenged
spokesman
of
the
Free
French,
leader
of
a
government
in
exile,
and
to
insist
that
the
voice
of
France
be
heard
as
an
equal
in
the
Allied
councils
of
war.
Even
the
Communists
accepted
his
leadership,
though
he
was
far
from
representing
the
kind
of
political
interests
with
which
they
could
sympathize.
Thanks,
however,
to
his
persistence,
representatives
of
his
provisional
government
moved
into
liberated
areas
of
France
behind
the
Allied
advance
after
D-day,
thereby
saving
the
country
from
what
would
certainly
have
been
at
least
localized
outbreaks
of
civil
war.
It
was
also
thanks
to
his
insistence
that
Free
French
units,
notably
General
Leclerc's
Second
Armoured
Division,
were
allowed
to
perform
the
psychologically
vital
role
of
being
the
first
Allied
troops
to
enter
Paris,
Strasbourg
and
other
emotionally
significant
towns
in
France.
