Vichy France (in French, Rgime de Vichy) is the common name of the French State (tat

franais) headed by Marshal Philippe Ptainduring World War II. In particular, it represents the
southern, unoccupied "Free Zone" (zone libre) that governed the southern part of the country.
From 1940 to 1942, while the Vichy regime was the nominal government of France as a whole,
Germany militarily occupiednorthern France. Thus, while Paris remained the de jure capital of
France, the de facto capital of southern, "unoccupied" France was the town of Vichy, 360 km to the
south. Following the Allied landings in French North Africa in November 1942, southern France was
also militarily occupied by Germany and Italy. The Vichy government remained in existence, but as
a de facto client and puppet of Nazi Germany. It vanished in late 1944 when the Allies occupied all of
France.
After being appointed Premier by President Albert Lebrun, Marshal Ptain ordered the French
Government's military representatives to sign an armistice with Germany on 22 June 1940. Ptain
subsequently established an authoritarian regime when the National Assembly of the French Third
Republic granted him full powers on 10 July 1940. At that point, the Third Republic was dissolved.
Calling for "National Regeneration", the French Government at Vichy reversed many liberal policies
and began tight supervision of the economy, with central planning a key feature. Labour unions
came under tight government control. The independence of women was reversed, with an emphasis
put on motherhood. Conservative Catholics became prominent. Paris lost its avant-garde status in
European art and culture. The media were tightly controlled and stressed virulent anti-Semitism, and
after June 1941, anti-Bolshevism.[3]
The French State maintained nominal sovereignty over the whole of French territory, but had
effective full sovereignty only in the unoccupied southern zone libre ("free zone"). It had limited and
only civil authority in the northern zones under military occupation. The occupation was to be a
provisional state of affairs, pending the conclusion of the war, which at the time appeared imminent.
The occupation also presented certain advantages, such as keeping the French Navy and the
colonial empire under French control, and avoiding full occupation of the country by Germany, thus
maintaining a meaningful degree of French independence and neutrality. The French Government at
Vichy never joined the Axis alliance.
Germany kept two million French soldiers prisoner in Germany, carrying out forced labour. They
were hostages to ensure that Vichy would reduce its military forces and pay a heavy tribute in gold,
food, and supplies to Germany. French police were ordered to round up immigrant Jews and other
"undesirables" such as communists and political refugees. Much of the French public initially
supported the government, despite its undemocratic nature and its difficult position vis--vis the
Germans, often seeing it as necessary to maintain a degree of French autonomy and territorial
integrity. In Novem