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Milice française
Flag of the Milice
Active
30 January 1943 (1943-01-30)–15 August 1944 (1944-08-15)
Country
Vichy France
Allegiance
Nazi Germany
Type
Paramilitary militia
Role
Anti-partisan duties in Axis-controlled France
Size
25,000–30,000
March
Le Chant des Cohortes
Engagements
Maquis des Glières
Maquis du Vercors
Maquis du Mont Mouchet
Liberation of Paris
Liberation of France[1]
Commanders
Ceremonial chief
Pierre Laval
Commander
Joseph Darnand
Military unit
The Milice française (French Militia), generally called la Milice (lit.'the militia'; French pronunciation:[milis]), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy régime (with German aid) to help fight against the French Resistance during World War II. The Milice's formal head was Vichy France's Prime Minister Pierre Laval (in office 1942 to 1944), although its chief of operations and de facto leader was Secretary General Joseph Darnand. The Milice participated in summary executions and assassinations, helping to round up Jews and résistants in France for deportation. It was the successor to Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) militia (founded in 1941). The Milice was the Vichy régime's most extreme manifestation of fascism.[2]
Ultimately, Darnand envisaged the Milice as a fascist single-party political movement for the French State.[3]
Members of the Milice, armed with captured British Bren machine guns and No. 4 Lee–Enfield rifles.
Milice members frequently used torture to extract information or confessions from those whom they interrogated. The French Resistance considered the Milice more dangerous than the Gestapo 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.[4][5]
^
Curtis, Michael (6 June 2003) [2002]. Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. ISBN 9781628720631. Retrieved 14 April 2024. The Milice was the ugly face of fascism in France, incorporating both a military and bellicose style and a programme and quasi-ideology. [...] In January 1944, Darnand was appointed Minister for Order, and in June, Minister of the Interior. The extreme Milice had captured power. [...] The Milice had become a state within a state. It was central to the process of repression. France was now on the threshold of becoming a fascist state.
^Martin Blinkhorn, 2003, Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth-Century Europe, p. 193, ISBN 1134997124
^"SAS - Rogue Heroes", page 229 - Ben MacIntyre - 2016 - Penguin Books - ISBN 978-0-241-18662-6
^
Biography of Michel Thomas, page 129. [Robbins, Christopher. "Test of Courage: The Michel Thomas Story" (2000). New York Free Press/Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-0263-3/Republished as "Courage Beyond Words" (2007). New York McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-149911-3]
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Global Information
Vichy France
Nazi Germany