Last time we finished here, in Berlin, at the
end of 1939 which was quite successful for Germany. Several years after the Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his
party NSDAP had come to power, Germany changed. A humiliated country which survived the empire
collapse and the shame of the Versailles Peace became one of the world’s leaders. Hitler has one win after
another giving Germany army, lands and power back. Yes, there is a dictatorship in the country, all the political
freedoms are canceled, but for the first time in many years the economic situation has improved, people have jobs. Most of the Germans might not be rich but at least their income
is stable. In the end of 1939 peaceful annexations stopped, and Hitler started a war against Poland. The Polish army wasn’t weak at all, but it
was crushed, and Warsaw fell in several weeks. Although France and Great Britain declared war against
Germany, they didn’t dare to start military action. And the USSR signed a nonaggression pact with Germany.
Many people would be surprised to learn that 1940 was going to be even more successful for Hitler. Today we’ll try to understand how it happened that
by summer Hitler would have just one opponent left. By the spring of 1940 Germany had finished with
Poland, regained strength and turned to the West. Hitler’s main goals were France
and Great Britain, of course. But the first victims of his aggression
were Denmark and Norway. The plan of intrusion into those Scandinavian
countries was called “Weserübung” (Weser Exercise). It was developed quite quickly. The operation was developed in detail in February
1940, and in April Hitler approved the whole plan. The formal reason to start the war was
the incident with the transport ship “Altmark”. There were several hundred British
captives on this German ship. On February 16, 1940 in the coastal waters of formally
neutral Norway the British destroyer boarded “Altmark” and liberated its fellow citizens. The Norwegian troops chose not to interfere,
giving Hitler the reason to justify his aggression. The intrusion started on April 9. As always they counted for blitzkrieg – a sudden attack
and fast special operation capturing the capitals of Denmark and Norway for several days. The Scandinavian countries were so weak that they weren’t
even taken into consideration during the strategic planning. The most important thing
was to be faster than the British. The Nazis entered Denmark with just 2 divisions
and 1 squad. They met almost no resistance. The number of victims prove it – 2 German
soldiers were killed and 13 Danish soldiers. In the morning of that very day the German ship
brought landing troops to the harbor of Copenhagen. The infantry took bicycles to get to the royal palace
and started a gun fight with the guard. King Christian X ordered to capitulate. The war happened between breakfast and lunch. They had more trouble with Norway. When the landing troops landed in Oslo, the Norwegians
even managed to sink the German transport ship with several hundreds of soldiers. However, after the next attack
the capital of Norway fell. The king fled to the North where he hid in the forest. A pro-Nazi government was formed
in Oslo with Vidkun Quisling in its head. His name became a synonym of the word “traitor”. During the events in Norway Winston Churchill
started playing an important role in European policy. Being the First Lord of Admiralty
(the Minister of the Navy), Churchill insisted on sending the British expedition corps to Norway. The landing in Norway was
planned for the spring of 1940. Hitler disrupted their plans, being
faster than the British for several days. However, in the sea the British showed their
skills defeating the German fleet on April 10 and 13 near the Norwegian Narvik. After that the landing troops landed in Narvik and occupied
the foothold but they were too weak and there weren't enough soldiers to make the Germans leave Scandinavia. The British managed to stay in
Norway till the beginning of June. But the catastrophic situation after France’s defeat made
them go home because there was a good chance Germany would attack Great Britain. The Norwegian King and the government evacuated with them.
By mid-June the Nazis occupied the whole Norway. Why did the Germans need the
Scandinavian countries at all? They had no strong armies, no fleet,
they were situated on the edge of Europe and had no serious influence
on the situation in Europe. Why did Norway become the place for
serious battles between Germany and Great Britain? Why did they need to take Denmark,
which was no threat at all and which, by the way, signed a
nonaggression pact with the Nazis? There were several reasons for that. First, the German commanders wanted to use the
Norwegian ports to ensure domination in the North Sea. Admirals said that one of the reasons for the German fleet
failure during WWI was an “unfortunate base location”. So, they were getting ready for the previous war
and wanted to correct the mistakes they had made. In fact, those bases won’t help
them much, and we’ll see that. Second, iron ore extracted in neutral Sweden and supplied to
Germany through the Norwegian port Narvik was valuable. Generals persuaded the führer that if the British blocked
those supplies, it could have hurt military production. Later it will turn out that the seizure of
Scandinavia wasn’t a good thing for the Nazis. They had to supply energy resources to Norway. At that time no one knew about the
huge oil resources in the North Sea. They had to keep 300,000 military men there which
Wehrmacht could use somewhere else, like in Stalingrad. And the Germans had plenty
of iron ore after taking France. As a result, Germany exported to Norway
more goods than they took from it. But if we don’t take Norway,
the British soldiers would do it. The commanders persuaded Hitler to
start an operation giving him reasons like that. And at the moment they were right. Denmark and Norway were another führer’s success
because he thought he got himself important territories and resources and annoyed the British. The loss in Norway caused a
governmental crisis in Great Britain. The Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain took
responsibility for it and resigned on May 10, 1940. Winston Churchill, who was eager
to fight, formed a new government. Once again, we are in France, on the Maginot Line. Everyone understood that after Denmark
and Norway the Nazis would come after France, and they had many hopes for the Maginot Line. As of 1939 all the French fortifications were divided
into 25 sections. In the South it was the Alpes Line. It defended the border with Italy. In the West there was the main part –
the part we usually call the Maginot Line. Those are the fortified regions of Metz
and Lauter and the Rhine front. On the border of France and Belgium there was a defense
line which was called “the extension of the Maginot Line”. It was much less solid than the western part. The overall length of all the fortifications from
Italy to the Atlantic Ocean was 1,150 km. The main military units of the Maginot Line were small
forts (petits ouvrages) and big forts (gros ouvrages). Small forts consisted of 2-4 blocks, that means
dug-in constructions which are connected to each other with underground
tunnels at the depth of 20-25 meters. Barracks, kitchen, hospital, warehouses, power station
and other service facilities were also underground. Blocks were covered with armored caps with fire points
for machine guns, anti-tank guns and other weapons. Small forts could have armored towers
for machine gun or artillery fire. To prevent the opponent from coming close
to the fort, they used to build several more fire points. Each fort could live on its own long enough –
for several weeks or even months if it’s encircled. It was something like a submarine,
just under the ground. An underground tunnel was blocked with sealed doors
and protected the soldiers even from a gas attack. There were a hundred of such small forts. If a small fort was an underground analogue of
a submarine, a big fort was a real underground town. Up to 1,000 people could live
independently there for several months. A big fort was divided into several parts –
residential, service and military parts. They were connected with underground
passages with narrow-gauge railway in it. The military part (fire points) was on
a higher ground to control the attacks. In big forts there were towers emerging from the ground, if the
opponent was shelling, the tower could hide under the ground. When the offensive of the French troops started, the tower
emerged from the ground and supported them with fire. In the residential part there were barracks for privates and
rooms for officers, kitchens and a hospital where doctors could perform urgent surgeries, for example. In the service area there was a power station, pump
station for extracting water from its own well, fuel cisterns, installation for ventilation and air filtration. Each fort had a secret hidden exit to the surface,
special waste water tunnel and a mortuary for killed soldiers or people who died because of a disease. As soon as the Maginot Line was a French installation,
there were wine cellars in big forts, of course. There were more than 50
big forts on the Maginot Line. According to the initial plan, the distance between
forts shouldn’t have exceeded 3–5 km. In this case they could support each
other with fire during the opponent’s attack. And because of the pillboxes the whole Maginot Line
should have been an area which could be covered by fire. The necessary strength of the garrison was
calculated through the ratio 1 defender for 10 offenders. By 1939 there were 300,000 people on the Maginot Line,
while the overall number of the German Wehrmacht was more than 3 million people.
So, all in all the garrison was up to the job. Let’s get back to the
Western front in the spring of 1940. The allies had no changes then. Nothing was happening, except for small local shootings,
though the war was going on for more than half a year. The British and French commanders still preferred a
waiting strategy, quarreling with each other in the process. In March 1940 the government of France changed,
and Paul Reynaud became the new Prime Minister. Unlike his predecessor Daladier, Reynaud was eager to fight
and constantly offered different military plans – for example, to land in Norway or bomb
Soviet oil extraction bases in Baku. But in reality, the allies’
strategy hadn’t changed much. And Hitler together with Wehrmacht commanders
decided to put an end to the war in the West. The plan of intrusion into France was
called “Gelb” which means “Yellow”. On May 10 the intrusion into
Belgium and the Netherlands started. The German landing troops managed to take floodgates
preventing the Dutch from implementing their favorite tactics – to drown the whole country in water. In the 18th century the Dutch invented the whole plan
on how to create a water barrier in case of enemy intrusion. If necessary, they could make the water level
grow for 40–60 cm to make it difficult for the artillery and the infantry to move forward. On May 14 Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam severely. The city was burnt, 900 of civilians
died, 85,000 lost their homes. After the Rotterdam destruction the German
commanders promised to destroy other Dutch cities too, if the Netherlands didn't capitulate. The capitulation was signed the next morning. It was a bit better for the allies in Belgium. The Belgian king allowed
the allies to come to his territory, and they thought they had stopped
Wehrmacht’s offensive to the West from Brussels. But it turned out that those
were the distracting moves. The main strike was planned in another place. 45 German
divisions and 2,000 tanks were sent for the breakthrough to the Ardennes – to the mountain on
the border of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Their goal was to break the French
front and come to the English Channel. On May 10 the decisive offensive
of the German troops started. The French military experts thought it was
impossible to attack through the Ardennes. And even if they managed to drag a couple of
tanks through the mountains, there was the Meuse River. The bridges through it were mined, and on the coast there
were infantry divisions in the reinforced concrete pillboxes. The French generals read it in the textbooks that in
situations like this the opponent should bring artillery and then long and stubbornly
bomb the fortified positions. However, the Germans cared neither about
the old rules of warfare nor the classic textbooks. They showered the French with fire and in one day –
on May 13 – they made a temporary bridge through Meuse. The allies’ attempt to destroy this bridgehead failed. Crossing Meuse, the German army was
free to go wherever it wanted. Now we know about the plan to encircle the
main British and French armies with one powerful strike towards the English Channel. But then it might have looked like that the
main direction would be the Maginot Line rear. We remember that its main task was to defend
the resources in the Eastern regions of France. While those regions weren't taken, the army could keep
fighting. Some Wehrmacht troops did turn to the South. On May 15 the garrison of a small
fort La Ferté had to engage in a fight. This fort consisted of 2 blocks connected
with an underground gallery. This fort had an armored tower
with different armories in it. In the blocks’ pillboxes there were fire points where machine
gun operators sat. The garrison La Ferté had 107 people. For several days the Nazis attacked the
fort unsuccessfully and encircled it from 3 sides. On May 18 they started using 88 mm cannons. It turned out
that they couldn’t break through the armored caps but they penetrated the steel so deeply that they
caused a horrible shaking and hurt the defenders. All the French had to leave their
positions and hide in the blocks of La Ferté. By the evening the Wehrmacht soldiers
managed to get to this tower and explode it. Now it’s in the same position as when it has exploded.
At night the Germans started the attack of the blocks. They destroyed all the fortifications
and threw explosives into the block. A fire started. The Nazis set a machine gun right in front of the exit
waiting that the French would try to escape or surrender. Meanwhile, a tragedy was
going on under the ground. The garrison left the burning blocks and went
down to the gallery which connected them. Leaving block No. 1 the defenders closed the gas-tight doors.
But they left block No. 2 in panic, so the doors weren’t closed. Early in the morning on May 19
ammunition exploded in the 1st block. As a result, the sealed doors were destroyed.
Smoke started penetrating the gallery from both blocks. The defenders put on gas masks, but
it didn’t work properly against carbon monoxide. For the last time the garrison La Ferté communicated
with the commanders at 5:39 am, May 19. “No changes in the situation… We’ve been wearing gas
masks for 6 hours…Heavy black smoke filled the gallery… People have to hold on to the cables in
order not to fall down because of the explosions… There’s no light and the situation is frightening…
Lieutenant is here with me… We’ll try to climb to block 2…” The Germans tried to get inside the blocks on
May 19 in the morning, but they didn’t succeed. First, because of poisonous smoke, second,
they were shelled from the gun machine. Perhaps, the last living
defender of La Ferté shot at them. The Nazis managed to get inside the
underground gallery just on June 2 of 1940. They found the bodies of all 107 fort defenders.
Lieutenant Bourguignon who commanded the garrison was found in his room in block No. 1. He went up there, locked the door from the inside, sat at the
table, took off his gas mask, folded his arms and met his death. In June when the resistance of the French
in the North was broken, the German commanders planned a global attack at the Maginot Line. In several places they managed to break
through, in other places forts resisted desperately. Often the fights were very stubborn.
The Germans failed to take any big fort – gros ouvrage. Some of them kept resisting till July
when the capitulation had been signed. The French commanders who started working on the
collaborationist Vichy regime asked the garrisons to surrender. Concluding the discussion about the Maginot Line we should
say that the reason for the French defeat was not in it. Of course, the French generals
and politicians weren’t idiots. They would be happy to build the Maginot Line
up to the Atlantic Ocean, but it was impossible. And the problem wasn’t just money.
In the North there was Belgium, the ally of France in WWI. The Belgian army was quite large and well-educated. To build a wall on the border with Belgium means
to cause founded suspicions that you are going to abandon your ally facing the Germans. In 1936 Belgium announced that it
would be neutral in case of war. It was a serious blow for the French. Here they would be happy to continue building the
Maginot Line, but they had no more money for that. All the military budget went
for making tanks and planes. The border was covered by
hastily made installations. Everyone understood that the
Germans would attack via Belgium. But no one expected that the
attack would be so powerful. It was expected that the allies’ troops
and the Belgian army would be able to resist, and the Eastern regions of France protected by
the Maginot Line would help them with resources. No one expected what happened later. A complete defeat of the French forces in the
North made the Maginot Line resistance pointless. Technically the line has fulfilled its task. The large German troops weren’t
able to break through the line. The problem was different – believing
in the invincibility of their fortifications, French commanders and generals didn’t spend
enough time and effort to create a modern army and practice new methods of war, that’s why
the Maginot Line wasn’t that useful for them. The Nazis sent their main
forces to the English Channel. Like the Polish army half a year ago, the French army
was divided into parts, crushed and lost its management. The refugees didn’t make it easier – 8 million
people fled from the Germans to the South, overcrowding the roads and making
it difficult for the reinforcements to come. By May 21 the German parts in Normandy
had come to the English Channel. Belgium was cut off from the rest of the
allies’ group and had to capitulate. May 28. The British and French parts were closed
in Dunkirk where a miracle happened which, perhaps, changed the course of war in the future. The historians still argue why Hitler didn’t
crush the enemy surrounded near Dunkirk. He gave an order to stop the attack, and those
several days were enough for the British to start an unprecedented saving operation. The British navy and hundreds of small
private ships, fishing boats including, helped to evacuate the army via the English Channel. More than 300,000 of soldiers were
saved from death or captivity. There were bright moments in the
actions of the French troops too. The order for the creation of the 4th armored
division near the town of Laon was given after the German offensive had started – on May 10. The next day the next President of France Charles
de Gaulle takes over the division management. At 4 am on May 17 de Gaulle sends his limited forces to
the northeast in the direction of the village Montcornet. It is of great strategic importance. The cargos providing for
the 1st Wehrmacht tank division come through this village. On May 17 by noon the French tanks break through and knock
the German troops out from the eastern part of Montcornet with great losses for the Germans. On May 19 the lack of support and air cover make the
de Gaulle division retreat to the initial positions. This counterattack will be
remembered as a heroic act. But it was a local success which hasn’t
influenced the outcome of the whole campaign. On June 5 the German troops were
rearranged according to the before-war plans. The group of armies B is on the West, along Somme to
Bourgeois, the group of armies A is from Bourgeois to Mosel, group of armies C is on the East. Three French army groups are against them:
the 3rd one – from the ocean coast to Reims, the 4th one – from Meuse to Montmedy. Those two armies form the so-called “Weygand Line”
which has been thoroughly reinforced since May 20. The 2nd army group is behind the Maginot Line. After the Dunkirk evacuation, the whole
left flank of the allies’ troops stops existing, and there is a huge gap in the frontline now – from Calais
to Luxembourg, german divisions rush to this gap. On June 9 after the intense battles the B group
defeats the French defense and comes to the Seine. The tank parts of the A group break through the
positions of the 4th French army near Chalons-sur-Marne and move to the South, the German troops
are several kilometers from the capital now. On June 14 Paris surrenders without a fight.
The French government flees to Bordeaux. In such conditions the capitulation supporters
got the power in the French government. As I said, “a strange war” demoralized
both the French army and French society. And it looked like military defeat buried
the idea that they could resist Germany. In May the Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, facing the
catastrophe, urged “the winners of 1918” to come to power. Those were 84-years-old Marshal Philippe
Pètain who became a vice Prime Minister, and General Maxime Weygand who
became the Commander-in-Chief. It was assumed that Petain and Waygand would be able to
do something, to save France when the front was crumbling. And they thought so too, but in their own way. On May 29 Weygand offered Reynaud
to stop fighting and settle for peace. The Vice Prime Minister Petain thought the same, Reynaud
declined this offer and even assured Winston Churchill who visited France: “We won’t lay
down our weapons if you don’t”. But on June 16, after Paris surrendered,
Reynaud resigned, and Petain replaced him. The next day Petain addressed people on the
radio and urged them “to stop fighting” and suggested the Germans conclude a truce. With great sadness I’m telling you that we have to stop fighting. Hitler accepted the offer. We are in the Forest of Compiègne again, at the same place in
France where in 1918 the German commanders signed a truce which became Germany’s capitulation in WWI. On June 22 the second Compiègne
Armistice was signed here. The Germans demanded that it should be the same
carriage where the first armistice had been signed in. This time the head of the German
General Staff welcomed the defeated French. Hitler participated in the first part of the ceremony, and then left
it demonstratively when the preamble of the armistice was read. We are in Vichy – in a small
resort to the southeast from Paris. Now, just 25,000 people live here.
It’s one of the smallest towns in France. It’s known for its mineral water and the
cosmetics brand of the same name. In the second half of the 19th century Vichy became one of the
most favorite places for the vacations of the French aristocracy. The emperor Napoleon III had his own chalet here. Vichy
changed in a good way under the rule of Napoleon III. The railway station and this building were built here. There was a casino and an opera theater here. This building as well as the town itself were destined
to be remembered in history. In a bad way. After Paris fell and the second Compiegne Armistice
was signed the French government fled here, to Vichy. Why did they choose Vichy as a place
for the new capital? Simple. Big cities like Marseilles weren’t an option because of the
rebellion threat. Paris was occupied by the Germans. And Vichy had a lot of advantages. Just several
thousands of citizens – you can control literally anyone. Fortunate location right in the center of France.
Railway station. Big telephone hub. Petain and his government
found what they wanted here. On July 19, 1940 in this theater hall of the
former casino (now it’s a Congress Palace) there was a National Assembly session
which included deputies and senators elected during honest democratic elections before the war. The majority voted to give the dictator power to
Marshal Petain. However, the decision wasn’t unanimous. 569 deputies voted “for”, 80 voted
“against” and 20 refused to vote. In modern France those who
were “against” are heroes now. Here in Vichy there is a memory
plate on the Congress palace wall. And those who voted “for” were lustrated,
they wouldn’t be able to be deputies of any level. Let’s imagine what those people who
assembled here in the Vichy Congress Palace felt. There were the main politicians of the Third Republic
there. Their country suffered a catastrophe. The army is defeated, the nation is demoralized.
Further resistance is pointless. That’s what the majority of deputies thought, except
for those 80 people who are on this plate behind me. It’s better to save whatever is left – a piece of allegedly free
France here in the South – that’s what the others thought. And to avoid any new shock, it’s better
to give all the power to Marshal Petain. So, they voted for that. Marshal Petain
was a national hero and pride of France. He was born in 1856 and decided to join the army in the early
1870s after the humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. Petain became famous during WWI. At first, Petain
commanded a regiment, then a brigade, then a division, then an army, then he became the head of
the General Staff, and at the end of the war he was a Commander-in-Chief of the
armies of the North and the North-East. His rank increased accordingly – a brigade general,
a division general and finally, in November of 1918, after the Compiegne Armistice,
he became a Marshal of France. Petain was engaged in all the important WWI
events – the Battle of the Marne when the French miraculously managed to defend Paris, the Battle
of Verdun where the military power of Germany was broken and many others. As a military commander, Petain was careful. He demanded to attack when
the operation was fully prepared. He thought about possible losses and tried
to save the lives of soldiers and junior officers. No wonder many veterans who came back home thought he
was a winner and a person who probably saved their lives. After the war Petain became a
very popular politician with conservative views. His ideal was not a democracy which made France weak,
as he thought, but a strong vertical government with a dictator. After Hitler attacked France in the spring of 1940, Petain
who was 84 years old then became a Prime Minister with almost unlimited power. This appointment
of the legendary marshal had to unite the nation. But something completely different happened. France suffered a defeat very soon and had to
sign a capitulation act in the Forest of Compiegne. The Capitulation Act divided the country into two parts. The North, including Paris, the whole coast of the Atlantic
Ocean and Bordeaux were in German occupation. The rest of France – the southern part
and the colonies – remained “independent”. We should underline this important
feature of France occupation by the Nazis. Initially the French were allowed to create a quasi-independent
government. Marshal Petain wasn’t appointed by Hitler. He was elected by the legitimate National Assembly in
a democratic way. It’s one more important thing here. Often, we think that the Vichy regime was a
puppet regime of the Nazi Germany which is correct. But we should remember
it wasn’t created by the Germans. Vichy wasn’t occupied by Wehrmacht, and the election in the
Congress Palace wasn’t controlled by the German army. So, instead of the French Republic,
“the French government” was created. The national motto “Liberty, equality, fraternity”
was replaced with “Work, family, motherland”. La Marseillaise was prohibited. Instead, the song
“Petain, we are with you” became the anthem. The capital of that glorious French government was the town
of Vichy, and Marshal Petain got himself a dictator’s power. The Parliament could assemble just after his
permission, and it never happened during all that time. A bit later the government eliminated
all the local and municipal management authorities. When the new government started
working the conditions weren’t easy. According to the conditions of the Armistice,
the French army was reduced to 100,000 people. In 1918 the German army was reduced to the same number
(and in 1941 the French army was completely demobilized). However, the Vichy government was
allowed to keep the troops in the colonies – Hitler wanted to use them
in the war against Great Britain. The whole navy had to be demobilized. To prevent giving French military ships to Hitler,
the English Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave an order to destroy French ships
in the harbor of Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria. Of course, no one warned the French about that. The British aviation struck and sank the
French fleet together with 1,500 French navy soldiers. This event spoiled the relationship between France and
Great Britain and was used by Hitler in his propaganda. Commenting on the capitulation conditions,
“the head of the French government” Petain said, “Our defeat is the result of our laxity. Our permissiveness
destroyed everything created with the spirit of sacrifice. So, first of all, I ask you to
resurrect intellectually and morally.” The occupation of the North of
France was supposed to be temporary. The Nazis said that it was done to make France
fulfill all the obligations until the final Armistice agreement was signed which never happened. The German commanders created normal customs on the
demarcation line with checkpoints and customs control. Any cargo shipments through this line should
have been approved by the Reich administration. If the citizens wanted to cross the line, they needed
a certificate proving urgent circumstances, for example, about the death or disease of a close relative. Often, to put pressure on Petain the Germans
closed the demarcation line for everybody. In October of 1940 Petain met Hitler and persuaded
him to release part of the French military captives. Meanwhile, 1,5 million people were
still in German captivity as hostages. They should have been released
after the Armistice was signed. The situation was especially difficult because half of those 1,5
million people surrendered because Petain asked them to. He never managed to get them out of camps. In October Petain also asked the nation to collaborate with the
Nazis in order to make the lives of their captured fellow citizens easier, in French “to collaborate” is “collaborer”. The Vichy regime and all the other regimes like that got
its name after this word – the collaborationist regimes. The capitulation of France is a
very important episode in its history. The thing is that the country exploded from the inside.
Among all the collaborationists who worked with Hitler, Petain was unique because a lot
of French people really supported him. That was because the Vichy government
included people who were really respected in France. The collaborationists’ leaders were national hero Petain
and a very popular ex-Prime Minister Pierre Laval. The politicians of this level never joined
Hitler in any other occupied country. By the way, if the figure of Philippe Petain causes
heated discussions even in modern France, the attitude towards Laval is quite clear. He was a classic collaborator who implemented policy in the
interests of the occupants which is proved by his statements. Like this one, “I’ll restore normal
and trusting relations with Germany and Italy. This war will inevitably lead to the creation of new Europe.
Germany is fighting great battles to create this Europe. I wish Germany a victory because without
it Bolshevism will be everywhere.” Freedom of print, assemblies, manifestations was canceled.
The hunt for communists and liberals started. Petain was often called just a “Marshal”, and
this rank in France became a synonym for a “Führer”. The personality cult of Petain started. Propaganda
described marshal as a person who saved the country from death and put him in one line with such historic
figures like Joan of Arc and Napoleon Bonaparte. Petain compared his own
power with absolute monarchy. The form of address he used in the
official documents made the likeness stronger. “We, the Marshal of France, the
head of the French government, decide…” Yes, in the South of France Petain built a typical fascist
dictatorship for his time, very much like in Hitler’s Germany, Franco’s Spain or Mussolini’s Italy – vertical government
united by power and property with a dictator in its head who has unlimited power. It was the government built on repressions with totalitarian
propaganda and the personality cult of the chief. But Petain himself thought
that such a government was ideal. It might look strange but the Vichy regime was immediately
recognized not just by the Axis powers and the USSR which was predictable knowing the USSR’s position
in this war in the summer of 1940, but also by the US, Canada and Australia. Petain announced the
beginning of the “National revolution” in France. The fight against the international
capital and socialism was announced. The Vichy regime denied liberalism, cosmopolitanism,
secularism and other “decadent values”. Instead, they started the process which
we might call the fight for spiritual ties. Now, just born French people had civil rights –
those people who had French fathers. The others were considered
immigrants and had no rights. It was especially difficult for the Jews, of course,
who were officially prohibited to engage in “any commercial or industrial activity”, and from 1942 they were
sent to the concentration camp and the death camp Auschwitz. In 1941 the Jewish veterans of the Verdun wrote a
collective letter to their marshal to stop the repressions. There was no response. If you are
French, it means you are a Catholic. In the republic the church got no money from
the government. Petain renewed the governmental financing of the Catholic church.
Catholicism became the state religion. The church had to become the
instrument for education of citizens. The Vichy Minister of Education Jacques Chevalier
proposed to give all the French schools to the church to cultivate Christian spirit in children. The Church became the instrument of propaganda.
Priests preached that the defeat of France was the punishment from God for laxity. Gerlier, the archbishop of Lyon,
said in 1941 that he can see “the impressive likeness between the
teachings of the church and marshal words”. This archbishop was also the author of the
words “France is Petain, Petain is France”. Another value of the Vichy regime was family. Before the war there was
a demographic crisis in France. Birth rate was still low and couldn’t cover
the gap from the tremendous losses in WWI. The Vichy propaganda announced that the reason for low birth
rate was laxity of the French, especially of French women. And they started fighting with it.
The law supporting large families was taken. Propaganda said that French women shouldn’t
think about their career, first of all, they are mothers. In a never-approved draft of the French Constitution there was
a clause suggesting that fathers and mothers in large families shouldn’t have one vote, but two or three
depending on how many children they have. Along with these harmless measures which
were the carrot, there was also a stick. There was a campaign against abortions. The Vichy government fought for
the moral values of the French. For example, they approved the law restricting
the work of night clubs and other similar places, they fought against prostitution
(which was legal before the war). In 1941 the Labor Charter became effective. According to it, one state trade
union should have been created. All the French workers had to enter it. The salaries in
different economic branches were set by the government too. It might be surprising but initially Petain’s regime was
supported by many French people and not only by fascists. The main feature of France in the
20s and 30s was pervasive pacifism. The wounds of WWI were so deep
that the society didn’t want any new war. So, after the first defeats of the French army in May 1940 the
suggestions to settle for peace with Hitler were taken calmly. For the same reason the creation of
the French Vichy government was approved by the parliament elected in a democratic way. But there were a lot of people who wanted to
serve the new government with guns in their hands. Even the future President of France Francois Mitterrand at first
believed in the ideals of Vichy, he was an officer of the Petain regime and even managed to serve in the French
analogue of SS for several months which was called “The Legionary Service of Order”. And some people even
participated in the Axis wars. So, the Vichy garrison in Madagascar seriously
fought the allied troops which tried to get the island back. Almost 6,000 French volunteers served in
the “Anti-Bolshevik legion” in the eastern front. Then they became an SS division “Charlemagne”. However, the further, the more people
were disappointed in the Vichy regime. All the benefits of the “national revolution” couldn’t make them
forget the main thing – the country was under Reich control. In November 1942 the
Nazis occupied the whole country. Hitler was afraid that even the loyal Vichy government could get
out of control and collude with the British and the Americans and welcome the landing
troops on the Mediterranean coast. His fears weren’t baseless – there
were secret negotiations about that. As a result, the German troops went through
Vichy France in one day. There was no resistance. The only military commander who ordered his troops to come
out of the barracks and fight was arrested by his own officers. His name was Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. Later he would escape the prison, join the allies and in the end
he would sign the Act of unconditional surrender of Germany on the night of May 9, 1945. After the occupation of the South of France it
was announced that two parts would be reunited. By the end of the war the Petain government degraded to the
usual puppet regime which fought just against partisans. Formally, the Vichy regime existed till the
liberation of Paris by the allies in August 1944. Several days before that the Nazis evacuated Petain to
Germany to have “the government in the exile” but marshal refused to work with them. After the
victory Petain was sentenced to death. But the President Charles de Gaulle changed the death
sentence for lifelong imprisonment on Île d’Yeu in the Atlantic Ocean where Petain died in 1951. Germany treated France as a conquered country. Of course, France didn’t experience
what the occupied USSR territories experienced. Not even close. But still Germany took
all possible resources from the French territories. There wasn’t enough fuel in the country (by 1943 there
would be enough fuel just for the governmental cars). There was a deficit of all possible goods.
There were huge queues at the shops. Food was given for special cards, very
often food just disappeared from the shops. The French gradually got used to
growing something up even in the cities. Life level was artificially low in France.
It was necessary to attract French workers to Germany. There were a lot of posters saying that a
job in Germany is the only way to feed the family. In 1943 when the Reich started experiencing problems,
forced mobilization of the French started. They were sent for work to Germany. In modern France they call the period
of occupation “black years”. No one argues with the fact of massive collaborationism.
In 1995 the President Jacques Chirac who replaced Francois Mitterrand recognized France’s participation
in the Holocaust and asked for forgiveness. In 2009 the Supreme Administrative Court of France
recognized responsibility for the deportation of at least 80,000 of Jews to the death camps, and it’s not just
about the decisions of the higher command. Millions of French people worked on plants and factories
producing planes, aviation motors and trucks for the Reich. All that was used to bomb Great Britain,
the USSR and the French themselves in 1944. But the most important thing is that France recognized and
accepted that there was such an episode in their history. They don’t try to hide it. On the contrary, they try to understand
why it happened and how to prevent it in the future. We should also note one unpleasant
thing about the Vichy government. In 1940 it started to take actions
“to solve the Jewish problem” on its own. It was their own initiative. In August of 1940 the government of Vichy
canceled the law prohibiting racism propaganda, and in October of the same year it took its first law restricting
the Jews’ rights both in the South of France and in its colonies. Thousands of Jews lost their citizenship retroactively. The first victims of the Vichy policy were dozens of thousands
of foreign Jews who came to France as refugees. The French government (not the Nazis) was the
first to put them in the so-called “special camps”. Sometime later the Nazi concentration
camps and death camps waited for them. In the summer of 1942 the Nazis came after the
French Jews after they had finished off the refugee Jews. And French people of Jewish
origin were sent to Auschwitz too. And the Vichy government did nothing to prevent it. Nowadays in Paris there is one of the biggest museums and
centers dedicated to the Holocaust – Memorial de la Shoah. “Shoah” means Holocaust in Hebrews, today near the doors of
almost every school in Paris and other French cities there are memorial plates in order to remember pupils who were killed
in the death camps because of what the Vichy regime did. Inside the schools there are other
plates with the names of the victims. All in all 11,400 children were deported,
and all of them were listed by their names. Let’s leave Vichy and go to Paris to talk about what
the life in occupation looked like in the French capital. Behind me is a famous cabaret “Moulin Rouge”,
a symbol of a truly Parisian frivolity. It opened its doors in the end of the
19th century and it’s still working. What happened to it and all the
other similar places in the Nazis time? Let’s find out. First of all, the Nazis
attitude towards the French was ambiguous. The problem was the origin. The French were the descendants
of the German tribes, Celts, Romans and many others. So, from the point of view of the Nazis’ racial theory,
the French were the Aryans but the defective ones. They didn’t plan to destroy the French,
but they couldn’t count on a good attitude. Hitler said, “apart from the Aryan blood, the
French will always have blood which is alien to us”. This was their philosophy. So, after the victory Hitler wanted to
make France as weak as possible. After defeating France in 1940 Germany
made Petain give Alsace and Lorraine back. But Hitler didn’t stop there. According to the Nazis theory,
the Burgundy where the percent of the “German blood” was the highest was given
for the German colonization. It was planned to include those territories into the Reich
and to relocate the majority of the French population out of it (and it was the 5th part of the whole population of France). The capital of France, Paris, had always taken a special
place among all the territories occupied by the Reich. The reputation the city had before the war helped a lot. Paris was considered European, and it
means the world’s capital of culture, fashion and what’s more important of entertainment. Even for Hitler, who allegedly despised
“the decadence” of the West, Paris meant a lot. Führer wanted to visit this city.
It was any European’s dream at that time. But of course, it wasn’t easy for a
poor artist from Vienna to buy a ticket. But the leader of the victorious
Third Rich needed no ticket. And in July 1940, soon after the capitulation of France
and the fall of the city, Hitler came to occupied Paris. Hitler walked through the city, visited the Louvre, took a photo
near the Eiffel Tower, and visited the tomb of Napoleon. He said it was “the best moment of my life”
after he left the tomb. He was just a tourist there. He was delighted by the city and
remembered this visit for many months to come. He told Speer, his court architect, “Isn’t Paris wonderful?
But Berlin should become even more beautiful. When we finish the reconstruction,
Paris will be just a shadow.” This image of Paris as the cultural capital of Europe didn’t
save the city but changed its destiny in the occupation. Hitler decided to make Paris an entertainment center
of his empire, a resort for Wehrmacht officers. So, Paris looked peculiar under the occupation.
All those strict Vichy morality laws didn’t work there. Theaters, night clubs, cabaret were
working in Paris. Moulin Rouge kept working but it was limited to a dancing and singing show. Edith Piaf, the future great singer,
started singing in Moulin Rouge during the war. She made her name giving concerts in Moulin Rouge. Piaf was connected to the Resistance but till the end of the
war the Germans didn’t manage to prosecute her for that. The singer even went to Germany to sing in
front of the French workers and captives in the camps. In the music halls of the occupied Paris another great
future chansonnier Yves Montand started his career too. However, most of the German soldiers
wanted less sophisticated entertainment. Paris became the center of German sex tourism. Despite the laws the Vichy government took to stop
prostitution, dozens of brothels worked legally in Paris. The French girls worked there. Some of them started working
there because otherwise it was difficult to provide for the family. That was the reason why a lot
of French girls dated German soldiers. Wehrmacht commanders encouraged such contacts. According to the Nazis, a depraved nation was weak,
so the German soldiers performed their duty for the Reich making France weak. The lives of the
girls who dated the Germans were sad after the war. They were called traitors,
they were abused and bullied. During the first years after the war the usual
punishment was to shave the girl’s head and make her walk down the street in shame.
Thousands of French girls suffered this way. But let’s get back to 1942 and 1943.
Paris looked weird then. Despite there were a lot of places for entertainment,
the city didn’t sparkle as it used to before the war. At night the city wasn’t lit – both to
hide and not to spend expensive electricity. Before the war Paris was called “The City of Light”,
but during the war it was called “The Black City”. And not just light was in deficit. No cars buzzed on the
boulevards – the Germans took all the fuel they could. There were cycle rickshaws instead of taxis, and
the milkmen and food deliveries used even dog sleds. Food was also a problem. The card system was used
in the city and in the whole of France, but it didn’t help. These or that goods constantly
disappeared from the shelves. Those who served the Germans
could eat more or less normally. But the majority of the citizens were trying to survive selling
things to the Germans at flea markets or starting farming and getting rabbits or hens at home. It was done secretly because no
one had canceled sanitary norms. Closer to the end of the war there were
cases when people had to eat dogs, cats or rats. Of course, the Jews were in the most difficult situation.
Right after the German troops entered the city, they started robbing the houses of rich Jews.
The German ambassador arranged the robbery. From 1942 the Parisian Jews had to
wear a yellow star on their clothes. That’s when the raids started,
and the SS arrested the Jews massively. After that they were sent to
the camps in Poland and Germany. Near Paris there were transit camps where Jews
were held before sending them to death camps. The biggest camp was Drancy – almost 70,000
Jews went through it. Most of them were killed. In the autumn of 1940 WWII came to the Balkans.
And the initiative wasn’t Hitler’s. The territory of the Balkan Peninsula was
Mussolini’s sphere of interest, the Italian Duce. In April 1939 Italy had no problem annexing
Albania – afterwards the kingdom became the place for further expansion in the Balkans.
Mussolini was an imperialist. He dreamt about the creation of
Big Italy similar to the Roman Empire. So, he didn’t want just the Balkans, but also Northern Africa,
the significant part of the Middle East and the South of France. However, Italy wasn’t actually ready for the war. There was a lack of armored machinery and clothing,
the fleet was obsolete, but what’s more important, production was too weak and they couldn’t
speed it up to replace the lacking machinery. Understanding that, Mussolini wasn’t eager to engage in
military action and delayed this moment for as long as he could. Just in June of 1940 when France was crushed,
he was afraid not to be in time to slice the pie and sent his troops to attack Provence. It wasn’t really successful. On June 20
Mussolini ordered to start an offensive in the Alps, but it was immediately stopped by the Maginot line defenders.
5 French divisions could stop 32 Italian divisions. The Italians were saved from complete humiliation
when on June 22 France capitulated to Germany and 2 days later to Italy too. But as a result of this unsuccessful campaign the Italians
occupied the area in the South of France which was much smaller than Mussolini expected. The Balkans were supposed to change the
situation and get the glory back to the fascist guns. On October 28, 1940 Italy gave an ultimatum to Greece
demanding the permission for its army to enter the country and occupy the strategic objects.
Of course, the Greek government refused. Now, this date – October 28 – is a national
holiday in the country – the Ohi Day (the No Day). The war started and Italy
experienced serious problems again. Though the quantity of the Italian army was
3 times greater than that of the Greek army, the fascists couldn’t achieve great success there.
The Italians weren’t ready for the winter war in the mountains. Their moral spirit couldn’t compete with the moral
spirit of the Greek army defending its Motherland. I’ll remind you that in the autumn of 1940 there was no country
in the continental Europe who resisted the Axis power. The British Empire was the only country
in the opposing team in the whole world. No one expected that tiny Greece would resist properly. Yes, Great Britain supported Greece as much
as it could, but the forces were obviously unequal. The more surprising thing is that the
Italian offensive was stopped pretty soon. Moreover, the Greek army carried on with their
success and threw the occupants away to Albania. Mussolini was furious and fired the
generals responsible for the operation. In March 1941 he came to Tirana to manage the new
war operation himself – a powerful spring counterattack which became a great failure just
like the first stage of the campaign. Hitler realized that it smelled of trouble for all the
Axis countries and it couldn’t end well with such an ally. So, he decided to interfere. On April 6, 1941 Wehrmacht
started the intrusion to the Balkans – into Greece, Yugoslavia where a military coup had happened shortly before
that and the pro-Hitler government had been banished. Neither Yugoslavian, nor Greek
armies couldn’t resist the Nazis. Another blitzkrieg was
successful – in mere days it was over. On April 17 the Yugoslavian commanders
signed unconditional capitulation. The country was divided into parts
between Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary. The Croatian nationalists (the Ustaše) were allowed
to announce the independence of Croatia, and the puppet Serbian government
was preserved near Belgrade. But in reality, both Serbia and Croatia were occupied
by the Axis countries and had no independence. A powerful partisan movement started in the country,
and there would be even several partisan armies. There were the most powerful communist partisans
of Josip Broz Tito and the monarchists (“chetniks”) of General Draža Mihailović. At the end of war Yugoslavia became one of several
European countries which would liberate themselves with minimal participation of the allied armies.
Along with that Wehrmacht took Greece. On April 27 the Germans entered Athens, and 2 days later they
reached the southern end of the Peloponnese peninsula. Greece also capitulated and was divided into three
occupation zones – German, Italian, and Bulgarian. Just the island of Crete which was defended by the British
garrison remained under the control of the Greek forces. Germany took Crete in May
1941 during the operation “Mercury”. The paratroopers were sent to the island, and they
occupied the airfields for the landing of transport planes. The unexpected intrusion to
the Balkans was very successful. The Italians couldn’t succeed with Greece for half a year, the
Germans did it in 3 weeks and took Yugoslavia along with it. It looks like it’s all marvelous. However, in the end of the war Hitler called the Balkan
operation the reason why his military campaign failed and cursed Mussolini who distracted him with Greece. Why? Because this offensive demanded significant
Wehrmacht forces and made them postpone the attack on the USSR for 1,5 months. Hitler needed those several
weeks to finish the Russian campaign before the start of autumn muddy season and winter.
Of course, this was just an excuse. The weather wasn’t the reason why the Nazism was defeated,
it was the heroic resistance of the Red Army and our citizens. But there are no insignificant things in history, and the
resilience of the Greek who held the Mussolini troops back and made Hitler abandon his preparations for the USSR
attack contributed to humankind's victory over the Nazism. By the start of June 1941 Germany
took all the power on the European continent. France, Poland, the Scandinavian countries (except for
Sweden) and the Balkans were under Hitler’s control. The main countries became the part of the
Nazis block (like Italy or Hungary) or were formally neutral, but they were
in touch with the Reich like Spain and Portugal. Among the counties which entered the war in
1939, just Great Britain kept fighting by 1941.