The HORRORS Of French Collaborator Executions JJ
As the French Resistance fought back against the German occupiers during World War II, there were many collaborators, men and women of France who worked with the enemy, who feared for their lives. They knew that the Resistance would beat them, torture them, and possibly even execute them. Women specifically experienced a very rough ordeal inside French towns and cities, and they forcibly had their heads shaved and were battered inside of towns for allegedly sleeping with the Germans.
There was a wild purge in which the Resistance went on the attack and executed thousands inside towns and cities. They rounded up their enemies and then shot them in front of thousands of onlookers. But why were French collaborators shot, and how bad were the executions for those who did help the Germans get cozy inside of France? French collaborators were shot by members of the French Resistance for many different reasons.
Collaboration was viewed by Resistance as both treason and also an immediate threat to the struggle against the German occupation. When the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy in D-Day during the 6th of 1944, no one knew if the landings would be successful, and some thought that the Germans would fight back.
So, the Resistance knew that to strike their enemies was as much about dealing with danger than it was about getting even with them. The circumstances of the executions differed, and some collaborators were deliberately shot, executed, or assassinated during the occupation because, well, they were known helpers to the occupation.
But others were executed after quick sham trials or without any legal precedent, and they were shot in what was chaotic reprisals. After France was defeated in June 1940, the country was divided between German-occupied territory and the authoritarian Vichy regime, which was led by Marshal Philippe Pétain. Vichy France cooperated with the Nazis.
They introduced repressive laws for the population and they assisted in the persecution and deportations of many people. Collaboration wasn’t just government officials and powerful politicians. French police officers, members of the militia, the Milice, informants, journalists, and ordinary civilians sometimes worked directly with the occupation authorities.
For resistance groups, informers were especially dangerous. One single informer could reveal the names of resistance members, identify safe houses, or expose weapon stores, radio operators, and escape routes. The consequences could include torture, execution, or deportation to a concentration camp. Resistance organizations therefore sometimes ordered suspected informants to be killed before they could betray even more people.
From the resistance’s perspective, these killings were not merely punishments. They were intended to protect underground networks from destruction. But some collaborators actively hunted resistance members. The Milice were a paramilitary organization created by the Vichy government and Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and they became particularly brutal.
They were notorious for arresting members of the resistance, torturing prisoners, and participating in execution. They were actively the men who pulled the trigger on resistance members. Resistance fighters regarded members of the Milice as not just political opponents, but as armed enemies who were helping the Germans suppress France’s liberation from Nazi tyranny.
Milice officers and other armed collaborators therefore became important targets for the assassination squads. Also, killing prominent collaborators could also serve as a warning. Resistance organizations wanted to demonstrate that cooperation with the occupiers carried serious consequences. The assassination of an informer, a Milice officer, or an openly pro-German official might have discouraged others from assisting the Germans.
It could also reassure the French population that the occupation authorities and their French supporters were not untouchable. But some attacks were deliberately made to weaken the machinery of the occupation, too. French police officers, railway officials, and local administrators supplied German soldiers with information.
They guarded strategic sites and even helped to arrest persecuted people and resistance members. When collaborators played an operational role in the occupation, in the eyes of the French resistance, they were just military targets and their deaths would represent part of the armed struggle for the liberation of France. There was, though, a huge amount of anger inside the country during the four years of occupation.
The French had suffered from food shortages, forced labor, deportations, and tough German reprisals. For every German soldier killed by resistance activity, for example, often hundreds of French people were shot. When German troops withdrew, that anger was often directed against those who had profited or supported the occupation.
This was seen as revenge by resistance members and they were getting even for their friends and relatives who had been arrested, tortured, deported, or killed. But resistance justice was never consistent and sometimes you probably couldn’t even call it justice, really. France contained numerous resistance movements with different beliefs and ideas and also different standards of discipline.
Some groups carefully investigated accusations of collaboration and they required senior approval from commanders before they carried out the execution. Sometimes secret in the shadows tribunals were assembled to discuss execution. But many other groups, especially from 1944 onwards, under very desperate conditions, shot and executed without any questions asked.
This was all tied in with the idea of the wild purge, where people were just shot after being captured. The violence against collaborators did increase with the invasion of Normandy by the allies. German authority was beginning to collapse, and the Vichy state was fracturing, too. No one knew what was coming in.
Charles de Gaulle was commanding from safety in Britain, but official courts were not available. During this period, thousands were shot without normal judicial procedures. Many were gathered by resistance units, and some were killed by local armed forces and just angry civilians. Some of those executed had unquestionably committed serious crimes, such as informing on resistance members, torturing prisoners, or serving in armed collaborationist organizations.
Others were killed on the basis of evidence that was, let’s say, sketchy at best, and some resistance members went after personal grudges with armed action. In these executions, it’s believed that roughly 8,000 to 10,000 people were executed, all without any questions asked. One example of this was the execution of militia members inside the town of Grenoble.
One witness claimed who directly saw the execution said, I quote, “It was like the crowd were rushing to watch a circus, laughing and greeting loudly, and rushing to surround the execution sites.” At the sites, people pushed past each other to find a good view. There was a lot of anger that day, and people who’d occupation wanted to see that justice was being carried out.
The six men were taken out to the site of the execution, where wooden stakes had been sunk into the ground. The officers of the resistance approached the men, and then tied them to the posts around their arms and legs, so they couldn’t move. The six dying men walked straight to the execution post without any begging or resistance, then turned around, leaned against the post.
The youngest prisoner was only 19 years old and the oldest was 26 years old. The two youngest were tied to the posts at both ends. They were no means heroes. They had opposed France and some of them were still fighting back on the day of liberation. But no one denied that they would also face death.
They did not kneel, sigh, or avoid the muzzles of the firing squad. I paid special attention to the 19-year-old boy. He was looking up to the sky just above the firing squad. However, he would never feel the rain again, nor would he see the beautiful Alps above the town. He stood there until the firing squad suddenly opened fire without any signal.
The bullets seemed to have entered the chest and heart of the deceased, but I’m not sure. The shooting was carried out twice. The boy leaned forward and fell back against the pillar, never to look up at the sky again. But not every person accused of collaboration was shot. Marshal Philippe Pétain avoided execution somehow, probably because of his age.
But many people were given prison sentences instead. Women, as mentioned, had their heads shaved publicly, accused of sleeping with the Germans. But the shooting of French collaborators had many different causes. It was a defensive measure designed to protect resistance networks, an attempt to punish traitors and those guilty of treason, and was also a method of intimidating others who might have thought about helping the Germans.
But during liberation, thousands of people were dragged out to French towns and cities and were shot in front of thousands of people. Thanks for watching. If you found this video interesting, maybe click subscribe. Once again, thank you so much for giving me your time to watch one of these videos.
