What was life like in France under the Vichy regime?

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Jewish people were deprived of civil rights, forced to register and many were forcibly deported to the death camps to fulfil quotas demanded of them by the Nazis.

For others there were few rights, strict censorship. Some people were enthusiastic supporters of Vichy France - either they were Nazi sympathisers as there were in all nations that had been invaded and occupied or they were oportunists who saw the chance to make money quickly.

There were shortages - France was effectively occupied and had to pay for the Germans to occupy the country. As the war drew on many French POWs were released, and the resistance grew. The response was the Milice - a secret police which hunted down and arrested many members of the resistance who were then handed over to the Germans....Show more

As one would expect in a fascist police state: gutted civil liberties, under a blanket presense of secret police and informants, crony capitalism; unions crippled by state power; workers' status denigrated.

See? Fascism is bad....Show more