France map Lambert-93 with regions and departments-occupation

The (Forbidden Zone) refers to two distinct territories established in German–occupied France during the

Second World War 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 ...

after the signature of the

Second Armistice at Compiègne The Armistice of 22 June 1940, sometimes referred to as the Second Armistice at Compiègne, was an agreement signed at 18:36 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, France by officials of Nazi Germany and the French Third Republic. It became effective a ...

, namely, a coastal military zone running along the entire Atlantic coast of France from Spain to Belgium, and the ("Zone Reserved") in the northeast, intended for German settlement.

Coastal military zone

A zone of restricted access to civilians was established to increase the security of the

Atlantic wall The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), d ...

. It was 20 km wide and ran along the Atlantic coast from

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

Hendaye Hendaye (; Basque: ''Hendaia'',HENDAIA
It was administered by the military administration in Northern France and Belgium () from Brussels.

Zone of intended German settlement

A vast expanse of territory in northern and eastern parts of occupied France comprising a total of five '' départements'' and parts of five others running from the mouth of the

Somme __NOTOC__ Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places *Somme (department), a department of France * Somme, Queensland, Australia * Canal de la Somme, a canal in France *Somme (river), a river in France Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Somme'' (book), ...

to the Swiss frontier in the Jura was separated from the rest of the Occupied Zone by a demarcation line and was effectively isolated from the rest of France. The terms ''zone réservée'' and ''zone interdite'' were often used interchangeably, but some sources distinguish a smaller forbidden zone, comprising parts of

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; ) is a French departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne (river), Aisne. In 2020, it had a population of 529,374. Geography The department borders No ...

and

Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...

départements, from the larger reserved zone. This extra demarcation line seems to have been theoretical only. Although

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

did not initially have plans to expand territorially in France except for the return of the formerly German Alsace-Lorraine, the total German hegemony gained after the Battle of France enabled him to plan the annexation of regions of France deemed strategically or economically important. This was especially true of frontier regions, the incorporation of which could be justified on the basis of historical Franco-German borders. At the end of May 1940 (before the Armistice), Hitler instructed Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, to make proposals for a new western frontier. A memorandum written on 14 June 1940 by Stuckart or someone close to him in the Interior Ministry discusses the annexation of certain areas which had been part of the historic German

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

in Eastern France to the German Reich. The document presents a plan to weaken France by reducing the country to its late medieval borders with the Holy Roman Empire and re-Germanizing the populace of the region, whom Hitler considered "in reality German", while he also planned to have these annexed territories settled with German settlers. This memorandum formed the basis for the so-called "North-east line" (also known as the "Black line" and the "Führer line"),Jäckel, E. (1966). ''Frankreich in Hitlers Europa'', Deutsche Vlg. p. 89
/ref> which marked the territorial extent of the forbidden zone. On 28 June 1940, the zone was closed, because of devastation caused by heavy fighting during the German campaign. The refugees who had fled the German advance during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

were not initially allowed to return to the territory, but passes were gradually issued for workers in short-staffed occupations. After August 1940, the land of farmers who had not returned to the zone was confiscated by the ''Ostdeutsche Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft'' ("East German Land Management Company") which managed confiscated Polish farmland. The company used the name ''Westland'' in the forbidden zone, and by the summer of 1942 was managing some 4 million hectares of farmland. Land redistribution to German peasants was however not immediately possible because of the limited quantity of potential settlers, a problem exacerbated by the ever-increasing manpower needs 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 ...

. In any event, the German forces guarding the line were insufficient in number to prevent the return of the territory's inhabitants, and thus by the end of 1940 only about a million of them were still missing (amounting roughly to one-seventh of the pre-war population). After the start of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

in June 1941, the German ambitions to expand the Reich westward beyond annexation of Alsace-Lorraine and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

were temporarily abandoned. The war with the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

brought vast casualties in the East. Hitler, who had always believed Germany's destiny lay in the east, lost interest in diverting German resources from the East in an effort to colonize what he believed to be Romanized German land. During the night of 17–18 December 1941, the German troops guarding the line were simply withdrawn, as the military commander of France Otto von Stülpnagel decided that diverting increasingly limited German manpower to guard a line that he deemed as being merely illusory (since most of the population had returned) could no longer be justified. Nevertheless, in theory the line continued to exist for the rest of the German occupation.

References

{{Occupation of France Military history of France during World War II

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 ...

Vichy France German occupation of France during World War II Exclusion zones