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The (French Militia), generally called (; ), was a political
paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy régime (with
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
aid) to help fight against the
French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The Milice's formal head was Vichy France's Prime Minister
Pierre Laval Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic (France), Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vich ...
(in office 1942 to 1944), although its chief of operations and ''de facto'' leader was Secretary General
Joseph Darnand Joseph Darnand (19 March 1897 – 10 October 1945) was a French far-right political figure, Nazi collaborator and convicted war criminal during the Second World War. A decorated veteran of the First World War and the Battle of France in 1940, h ...
. The participated in
summary execution In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, a ...
s and
assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...
s, helping to round up Jews and in France for deportation. It was the successor to Darnand's (SOL) militia (founded in 1941). The was the Vichy régime's most extreme manifestation of
fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
. Ultimately, Darnand envisaged the as a fascist
single-party A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...
political movement for the French State. members frequently used
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
to extract information or confessions from those whom they interrogated. The French Resistance considered the more dangerous than the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
or SS because its staff were native Frenchmen who understood local dialects fluently, had extensive knowledge of the towns and countryside, and knew local people and informants.


Membership

Early Milice volunteers included members of France's pre-war far-right parties, such as the
Action Française ''Action Française'' (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist and nationalist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement, '' L'Action Française'', sold by its own youth organization, the Camelot ...
, and
working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
men convinced of the benefits of the Vichy government's politics. In addition to ideology, incentives for joining the Milice included employment, regular pay and rations, the latter of which became particularly important as the war continued and civilian rations dwindled to near-starvation levels. Some joined because members of their families had been killed or injured in Allied bombing raids or had been threatened, extorted or attacked by
French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
groups. Still others joined for more mundane reasons: petty criminals were recruited by being told their sentences would be commuted if they joined the organization, and Milice volunteers were exempt from transportation to Germany as forced labour. Official figures are difficult to obtain, but several historians including Julian T. Jackson estimate that the Milice's membership reached 25,000–30,000 by 1944. The majority of members were not full-time militiamen, but devoted only a few hours per week to their Milice activities.Matthew Feldman, 2004, Fascism: The 'fascist epoch', p. 243, The Milice had a section for full-time members, the
Franc-Garde The ''Franc-Garde'' () was the armed wing of the French ''Milice'' (Militia), operating alone or alongside German forces in major battles against the Maquis from late 1943 to August 1944. History The creation of the ''Franc-Garde'' was announc ...
, who were permanently mobilized and lived in barracks. The Milice also had youth sections for boys and girls, called the ''Avant-Garde''.


Symbols and materials


Emblem

The emblem of the Milice, a stylised lower-case
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
letter
gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...
(γ), a variant of the
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astrological sign In Western astrology, astrological signs are the twelve 30-degree sectors that make up ecliptic, Earth's 360-degree orbit around the Sun. The signs enumerate from the first day of spring, known as the First Point of Aries, which is the Equinox (c ...
in the
zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...
, ostensibly represented rejuvenation and replenishment of energy. The color-scheme was silver on a blue background within a red circle for ordinary , white on a black background for the full-time armed members (the ) of the , and white on a red background for the active combatants.


March

Their march was ''Le Chant des Cohortes''..


Uniform

Milice troops (known as ''miliciens'') wore a blue uniform jacket and trousers, a brown shirt and a wide blue
beret A beret ( , ; ; ; ) is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap made of hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre. Mass production of berets began in the 19th century in Southern France and the north of History of Spain (1808 ...
. (During active paramilitary-style operations, an Adrian helmet was used, which commonly featured the emblem, either painted on or as a badge) Its newspaper was ''Combats'' (not to be confused with the underground Resistance newspaper, ''
Combat Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...
''). The Milice's armed forces were officially known as the ''
Franc-Garde The ''Franc-Garde'' () was the armed wing of the French ''Milice'' (Militia), operating alone or alongside German forces in major battles against the Maquis from late 1943 to August 1944. History The creation of the ''Franc-Garde'' was announc ...
''. Contemporary photographs show the Milice armed with a variety of weapons captured from Allied forces.


Ranks


History


Beginnings

The Resistance targeted individual for assassination, often in public areas such as cafés and streets. On 24 April 1943 they shot and killed Paul de Gassovski, a in
Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
. By late November, ''
Combat Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...
'' reported that 25 had been killed and 27 wounded in Resistance attacks.


Reprisals

The most prominent person killed by the Resistance was
Philippe Henriot Philippe Henriot (7 January 1889 – 28 June 1944) was a French poet, journalist, politician, and Nazi collaborator who served as Secretary of State for Information and Propaganda for Vichy France. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
, the Vichy regime's Minister of Information and Propaganda, who was known as "the French
Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda ...
". He was killed in his apartment in the Ministry of Information on the rue Solferino in the predawn hours of 28 June 1944 by ''résistants'' dressed as ''miliciens.'' His wife, who was in the same room, was spared. The Milice retaliated for this by killing several well-known
anti-Nazi Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
politicians and intellectuals (such as
Victor Basch Basch Viktor Vilém, or Victor-Guillaume Basch (18 August 1863/1865, Budapest – 10 January 1944) was a History of the Jews in France, French Jewish politician and professor of germanistics and philosophy at the University of Paris, Sorbonne de ...
) and prewar conservative leader
Georges Mandel Georges Mandel (born Louis George Rothschild; 5 June 1885 – 7 July 1944) was a French journalist and politician who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing Gironde from 1919 to 1924 and from 1928 until the dissolution of the Fren ...
. The Milice initially operated in the former ''
Zone libre The ''zone libre'' (, ''free zone'') was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered b ...
'' of France under the control of the Vichy regime. In January 1944, the radicalized Milice moved into what had been the '' zone occupée'' of France (including Paris). They established their headquarters in the old Communist Party headquarters at 44 rue Le Peletier and at 61 rue Monceau. (The house was formerly owned by the Menier family, makers of France's best-known chocolates.) The
Lycée Louis-Le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on Rue Saint-Jacques (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...
was occupied as a barracks, and an officer candidate school was established in the Auteuil synagogue.


Notable actions

Perhaps the largest and best-known operation undertaken by the Milice was the Battle of Glières, its attempt in March 1944 to suppress the Resistance in the ''département'' of
Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie () is a Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its Prefectures in France, prefecture is Annecy. To the north is Lake Gene ...
(in southeastern France, near the Swiss border). The Milice could not overcome the Resistance, and called in German troops to complete the operation. On Bastille Day, 14 July 1944, the
Franc-Garde The ''Franc-Garde'' () was the armed wing of the French ''Milice'' (Militia), operating alone or alongside German forces in major battles against the Maquis from late 1943 to August 1944. History The creation of the ''Franc-Garde'' was announc ...
suppressed a revolt started by prisoners at Paris prison La Santé, killing 34 prisoners. The legal standing of the Milice was never clarified by the Vichy government; it operated parallel to (but separate from) the Groupe mobile de réserve and other Vichy French
police forces The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...
. The Milice operated outside civilian law, and its actions were not subject to judicial review or control.


End of the war in Europe

In August 1944, as the tide of war was shifting and fearing he would be held accountable for the operations of the Milice, Marshal
Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...
sought to distance himself from the organization by writing a harsh letter rebuking Darnand for the organization's "excesses." Darnand's response suggested that Pétain ought to have voiced his objections sooner. After the Allied Liberation of France, French collaborators began fleeing the Allied advance in the west. During a period of unofficial reprisals immediately following on the German retreat, large numbers of ''miliciens'' were executed, either individually or in groups. Milice offices throughout France were ransacked, with agents often being brutally beaten and then thrown from office windows or into rivers before being taken to prison. At
Le Grand-Bornand Le Grand-Bornand (; ) is a commune in the eastern French department of Haute-Savoie. The commune is a ski resort and takes its name from the river that runs through it. The inhabitants of Le Grand-Bornand are called Bornandins. Geography Locat ...
,
French Forces of the Interior The French Forces of the Interior (FFI; ) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as F ...
executed 76 captured members of the Milice on 24 August 1944. Those Frenchmen who managed to escape to Germany and were serving in the
German Navy The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...
, the
National Socialist Motor Corps The National Socialist Motor Corps (, NSKK) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that officially existed from May 1931 to 1945. The group was a successor organisation to the older National Socialist Automobile Corps (, NS ...
(NSKK), the
Organisation Todt Organisation Todt (OT; ) was a Civil engineering, civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior member of the Nazi Party. The organisation was responsible ...
and the Milice security police became part of a new unit known as the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne (''Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS Charlemagne''). The unit also included some remaining personnel from the disbanded
Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (, LVF) was a unit of the German Army during World War II consisting of collaborationist volunteers from France. Officially designated the 638th Infantry Regiment (''Infanterieregiment 638''), ...
(LVF) and the SS-Volunteer ''Sturmbrigade'' France (SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Frankreich"). Later in February 1945, the unit was renamed the Charlemagne Division of the
Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
. At this time it had a strength of 7,340 men: 1,200 men from the LVF, 1,000 from the ''Sturmbrigade'', 2,500 from the Milice, 2,000 from the NSKK, and 640 who were former ''Kriegsmarine'' and naval police. Some of its surviving members were among the last defenders of Hitler's bunker, fighting suicidally to the end in the ruins of Berlin.


Aftermath

An unknown number of ''miliciens'' managed to escape prison or execution, either by going underground or fleeing abroad. A few were later prosecuted. The most notable of these was
Paul Touvier Paul Claude Marie Touvier (; 3 April 1915 – 17 July 1996) was a French Nazi collaborator and war criminal during World War II in Occupied France. In 1994, he became the first Frenchman ever convicted of crimes against humanity, for his parti ...
, the former commander of the Milice in
Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
. In 1994, he was convicted of ordering the retaliatory execution of seven Jews at
Rillieux-la-Pape Rillieux-la-Pape () is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central-eastern France. In 2020, it had a population of 30,887. The commune was formed in 1973 by the merger of the former communes Rillieux and Cr� ...
. He died in prison two years later.


In popular culture

*Since the war, the term ''milice'' has acquired a derogatory meaning in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. *The French hard rock ensemble
Trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust (law), a legal relationship in which one person holds property for another's benefit * Trust (bu ...
had a hit named "Police Milice", where its frontman Bernard Bonvoisin compared modern-day
police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...
s to the Milice. *
Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made document ...
's films '' Lacombe, Lucien'' and ''
Au revoir les enfants ''Au revoir les enfants'' (, meaning "Goodbye, Children") is an autobiographical 1987 film written, produced, and directed by Louis Malle. It is based on the actions of Père Jacques, a French priest and headmaster who attempted to shelter Jewish ...
'' include the Milice as part of the plot. *The 2003 drama '' The Statement'', directed by
Norman Jewison Norman Frederick Jewison (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical Social issue, social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects acces ...
and starring
Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...
, was adapted from the 1996 novel of the same name by Brian Moore. He shaped it from the story of
Paul Touvier Paul Claude Marie Touvier (; 3 April 1915 – 17 July 1996) was a French Nazi collaborator and war criminal during World War II in Occupied France. In 1994, he became the first Frenchman ever convicted of crimes against humanity, for his parti ...
, a Vichy French Milice official who hid for years (often sheltered by the Catholic Church) and was indicted in 1991 for
war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...
. Both he and the film character had supervised a mass murder of Jews. * The film '' Female Agents'' (), set during World War II, has a scene where two of the female agents walk past a recruitment poster for the Milice which says "Against Communism / French Militia / Secretary-General Joseph Darnand". *In the ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' audio story '' Resistance'', the
Doctor Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...
and
Polly Polly is a given name, most often feminine, which originated as a variant of Molly (name), Molly (a diminutive of Mary (name), Mary). Polly may also be a short form of names such as Polina (given name), Polina, Polona (given name), Polona, Pauline ...
have to evade the Milice in 1944. *They feature prominently in the popular French TV series ''
Un Village Français ''Un village français'' (''A French Village'') is a French television drama series created by chief writer Frédéric Krivine and principal director Philippe Triboit, with the assistance of historical consultant Jean-Pierre Azéma. It is set ...
'' which covers the whole period of the occupation and liberation and was broadcast in France and extensively internationall

*They are enemies in '' Medal of Honor: Underground''. *The Catholic priest Father Fehily from the
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is a satirical fictional Irish character, a wealthy South County Dublin rugby union jock created by journalist Paul Howard. The character first appeared in a January 1998 column in the ''Sunday Tribune'' newspaper and late ...
series of novels is revealed to have served in the Milice as a young man, in the novel '' Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade'' (2007).


See also

;Axis *
Lorenzen Group The Lorenzen group ( Danish: ''Lorenzengruppen'') was an armed paramilitary group of Danish collaborators, subordinate to the HIPO Corps, which was active during the period December 1944 – May 1945. The group is named after its founder Jørge ...
– Danish pro-German paramilitary group *
Security Battalions The Security Battalions (, derisively known as ''Germanotsoliades'' (Γερμανοτσολιάδες, meaning "German tsoliás") or ''Tagmatasfalites'' (Ταγματασφαλίτες)) were Greek collaborationist paramilitary groups, formed d ...
– Greek pro-German paramilitary group *
Carlingue The ''Carlingue'' (or French Gestapo) were French auxiliaries who worked for the Gestapo, ''Sicherheitsdienst'' and ''Geheime Feldpolizei'' during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. The group, which was based at 93 rue L ...
– the French version of the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
. *
Special Brigades During the Second World War, the Special Brigades (, or BS) were a French police force in Vichy France specializing in tracking down "internal enemies" (i.e. French Resistance workers), dissidents, escaped prisoners, Jews and those evading the ob ...
– Paramilitary sections of the Vichy Police service. *
Geheime Feldpolizei The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'' (; ), shortened to GFP, was the secret military police of the German ''Wehrmacht'' until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plainclothes and undercover security work in the field. Their ope ...
– the secret military police of the ''
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
'' that worked alongside the Milice ;Allies * Maquis des Glières – resistance group *
Maquis du Vercors The Battle of Vercors in July and August 1944 was between a rural group of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) Maquis_(World_War_II).html" ;"title="'Maquis (World War II)">maquis''and the armed forces of Nazi Germany which had occupied Franc ...
– resistance group


References


Further reading

* Cullen, Stephen M., Stacey, Mark, (2018) ''World War II Vichy French Security Troops'', Osprey Publishing. * * * * * {{Authority control Far-right politics in France National security institutions Political repression in France Defunct law enforcement agencies of France French collaboration during World War II Military of Vichy France Paramilitary organizations based in France 1943 establishments in France 1944 disestablishments in France Police misconduct in France Political parties of the Vichy regime Fascist organizations Pierre Laval The Holocaust in France