Vichy France in WWII: Pro-Fascist, Pro-Catholic, Pro-Life, and Anti-Semitic

The leaders of the pro-Catholic Vichy French regime that collaborated with the conquering Nazi regime were also deeply anti-Semitic, and cooperated with the Germans to persecute the Jews from the earliest days of the regime. Communism was the mortal enemy of the Christian faith, most Catholics saw fascists as allies in their struggles against communism.
Was the reputation of the Catholic Church harmed by the collaboration of the Vichy regime? There is no single clear-cut answer to this question. The study of the Vichy regime is most valuable when used as a study on how Christians should live their lives under a secular and ungodly regime. Most of the bishops were compromised in their dealings with the Nazis and the Vichy regime, only one Vichy bishop spoke out against collaboration, many bishops were forced to resign at the war’s end.
However, many Catholic clergy and laymen opposed the anti-Semitism of the war years. Communists and Catholics jointly fought against the Nazis in the French Resistance, and much pro-Catholic legislation introduced by the Vichy regime was retained after the war. We can be cautiously optimistic in our views, many Catholics and priests lived out their faith in difficult times, although many Catholics and priests collaborated with the Nazis.
We will learn about:
• How the Dreyfus Affair caused anti-Semitism to fester in France.
• How World War I set the stage for World War II in France.
• How French workers and POW’s worked as virtual slaves in Nazi factories.
• How Collaboration with the Nazis decreased as the Nazis started to lose the war, and how the Resistance movement increased in strength.
• How Christianity fared under Fascist Vichy France and after the war.
• How the Vichy regime adopted many pro-Catholic laws and policies while it sent its Jewish citizens to the Nazi death camps.
• How many French joined the Milice, the French secret police, who were more brutal than the Gestapo.
• How many French joined the LPV, the French Volunteer Legion, who fought against the Bolshevik soviets on the Eastern Front with the Nazis.
• How Operation Torch, the Allied Invasion of French North Africa, and the D-Day invasion of the French Normandy Beaches affect the Resistance and Vichy France.
• How Robert Paxton’s book on Vichy France profoundly changed how Frenchmen viewed the history of Vichy France.
We will learn about many of the personalities of Vichy France:
• Marshall Phillippe Petain, hero of WWI, collaborationist Chief of Vichy France
• General Charles de Gaulle, leader of Free France
• Winston Churchill, English Prime Minister who urged the French to fight the Nazis
• Francois Darlan and Pierre Laval, Vichy leaders
• Yves Congar, the French priest, and how his ecumenical experience in a French POW camp affected the religious freedom decrees of the Second Vatican Council several decades later.
Purchase from Amazon:
Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, Revised Edition, by Robert O. Paxton: amzn.to/3m5cRCT
Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France, by W. D. Halls: amzn.to/3xSWX0u
View the slides at: www.slideshare...
See our blogs:
Vichy France Regime, Blog 1, Pro-Life, Pro-Catholic, and Fascist
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Vichy France, Blog 2, Collaborating with the Germans in the Early Years, 1940-1942
www.seekingvirt...
Vichy France, Blog 3, The Tide Turns, Resistance and Collaboration
www.seekingvirt...
Vichy France, Blog 4, Christianity in Vichy France
www.seekingvirt...
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This is original content based on research by Bruce Strom and his blogs. Images in the Public Domain, many from Wikipedia, some from the National Archives, are selected to provide illustration. When images of the actual topic or event are not available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. The ancient world was a warrior culture out of necessity, to learn from the distant past we should not only judge them from our modern perspective but also from their own ancient perspective on their own terms.