French Militia

• SOL

• EHRI Corporate Bodies
• Corporate Body
• Updated 1 decade ago

1941-12/1943-01-23

The success of Joseph Darnand and his eagerness for action led him to set up in 1941-12 a paramilitary organization, Service d’Ordre Légionnaire, still nominally under the Légion Française des Combattants, to act against the ‘enemies’ of Vichy. Self-defined as anti-Semitic and anti-democratic in its 21-point program which members had to accept, it condemned Jews, Freemasons and communists and proclaimed a struggle ‘For French purity and against Jewish leprosy’. On 1943-01-23 the SOL was transformed into the Milice Française.

• Vichy Regime

• EHRI Corporate Bodies
• Corporate Body
• Updated 8 years ago

Founded in 1940-06-22

Following the German defeat of France in 1940-05, French and German officials signed an armistice on 1940-06-22. Under its terms, northern France came under direct German occupation. Southern France remained unoccupied and was governed by a French administration, headquartered in the city of Vichy. In July the French National Assembly voted to suspend the constitution of the Third Republic and placed the new ‘Vichy regime’ under the leadership of the aging Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain. Officially neutral, Vichy France collaborated closely with Germany. In closely patterned on that of Germa...