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| Milice française | |
|---|---|
 Flag of theMilice | |
| Active | 30 January 1943 (1943-01-30)–15 August 1944 (1944-08-15) |
| Country |  Vichy France |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Type | Paramilitarymilitia |
| Role | Anti-partisan duties in Axis-controlled France |
| Size | 25,000–30,000 |
| March | Le Chant des Cohortes |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Ceremonial chief | Pierre Laval |
| Commander | Joseph Darnand |
TheMilice française (French Militia), generally calledla Milice (lit. 'the militia';French pronunciation:[milis]), was a politicalparamilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by theVichy régime (French State) (withGerman aid) to help fight against theFrench Resistance duringWorld War II. The Milice's formal head was Vichy France's Prime MinisterPierre Laval (in office 1942 to 1944), although its chief of operations andde facto leader was Secretary GeneralJoseph Darnand. TheMilice participated insummary executions andassassinations, helping to round up Jews andrésistants in France for deportation. It was the successor to Darnand'sService d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) militia (founded in 1941). TheMilice was the Vichy régime's most extreme manifestation offascism.[2]Ultimately, Darnand envisaged theMilice as a fascistsingle-party political movement for Vichy France.[3]
Milice members frequently usedtorture to extract information or confessions from those whom they interrogated. The French Resistance considered theMilice more dangerous than theGestapo orSS 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]
Early Milice volunteers included members of France's pre-war far-right parties, such as theAction Française, andworking-class 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 byFrench Resistance 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.[6] Official figures are difficult to obtain, but several historians includingJulian 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.[7] The Milice had a section for full-time members, theFranc-Garde, who were permanently mobilized and lived in barracks.[7]
The Milice also had youth sections for boys and girls, called theAvant-Garde.[7]
The emblem of the Milice, a stylised lower-caseGreek lettergamma (γ), a variant of theAriesastrological sign in thezodiac, ostensibly represented rejuvenation[8]and replenishment of energy. The color-scheme was silver on a blue background within a red circle for ordinarymiliciens, white on a black background for the full-time armed members (thefrancs-gardes) of theFranc-Garde, and white on a red background for the active combatants.
Their march wasLe Chant des Cohortes.[9]
Milice troops (known asmiliciens) wore a blue uniform jacket and trousers, a brown shirt and a wide blueberet. (During active paramilitary-style operations, anAdrian helmet was used, which commonly featured the emblem, either painted on or as a badge) Its newspaper wasCombats (not to be confused with the underground Resistance newspaper,Combat). The Milice's armed forces were officially known as theFranc-Garde. Contemporary photographs show the Milice armed with a variety of weapons captured from Allied forces.
| Insignia | Rank | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| No insignia | Sécretaire général | Secretary general |
| No insignia | Sécretaire général adjoint | Assistant secretary general |
 | Délégué général de la milice en Zone nord (Max Knipping [fr]) | General delegate in the Northern Zone |
 | Chef régional | Regional commander |
 | Chef régional adjoint | Assistant regional commander |
 | Chef départemental | Department commander |
 | Chef départemental adjoint | Assistant department commander |
 | Chef de centre | Commander of a center (regiment) |
 | Chef de centre adjoint | Assistant commander of a center |
 | Chef de cohorte | Battalion commander |
 | Chef de cohorte adjoint | Assistant battalion commander |
 | Chef de centaine | Company commander |
 | Chef de centaine adjoint | Assistant company commander |
 | Chef de trentaine | Platoon leader |
 | Chef de trentaine adjoint | Assistant platoon leader |
.svg) | Chef de groupe (cohorte) | Section leader (battalion) |
.svg) | Chef de groupe (centaine) | Section leader (company) |
 | Chef de dizaine | Squad leader |
 | Chef de dizaine adjoint | Assistant squad leader |
 | Chef de main | Team leader |
 | Chef de main adjoint | Assistant team leader |
 | Franc-garde | Free guard |
| Sources:[10][11][12] |
The Resistance targeted individualmiliciens for assassination, often in public areas such as cafés and streets. On 24 April 1943 they shot and killed Paul de Gassovski, amilicien inMarseille. By late November,Combat reported that 25miliciens had been killed and 27 wounded in Resistance attacks.
The most prominent person killed by the Resistance wasPhilippe Henriot, the Vichy regime's Minister of Information and Propaganda, who was known as "the FrenchGoebbels". He was killed in his apartment in theMinistry of Information on the rue Solferino in the predawn hours of 28 June 1944 byrésistants dressed asmiliciens. His wife, who was in the same room, was spared. The Milice retaliated for this by killing several well-knownanti-Nazi politicians and intellectuals (such asVictor Basch) and prewar conservative leaderGeorges Mandel.
The Milice initially operated in the formerZone libre of France under the control of the Vichy regime. In January 1944, the radicalized Milice moved into what had been thezone 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 theMenier family, makers of France's best-known chocolates.) TheLycée Louis-Le-Grand was occupied as a barracks, and an officer candidate school was established in theAuteuil synagogue.
Perhaps the largest and best-known operation undertaken by the Milice was theBattle of Glières, its attempt in March 1944 to suppress the Resistance in thedépartement ofHaute-Savoie (in southeastern France, near the Swiss border).[13] The Milice could not overcome the Resistance, and called in German troops to complete the operation. On Bastille Day, 14 July 1944, theFranc-Garde suppressed a revolt started by prisoners at Parisprison La Santé, killing 34 prisoners.[14]
The legal standing of the Milice was never clarified by the Vichy government; it operated parallel to (but separate from) theGroupe mobile de réserve and other Vichy Frenchpolice forces. The Milice operated outside civilian law, and its actions were not subject to judicial review or control.[citation needed]
In August 1944, as the tide of war was shifting and fearing he would be held accountable for the operations of the Milice, MarshalPhilippe Pétain sought to distance himself from the organization by writing a harsh letter rebuking Darnand for the organization's "excesses."[citation needed] Darnand's response suggested that Pétain ought to have voiced his objections sooner.[citation needed]
After theAllied Liberation of France, French collaborators began fleeing the Allied advance in the west.[15] During aperiod of unofficial reprisals immediately following on the German retreat, large numbers ofmiliciens were executed, either individually or in groups.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] AtLe Grand-Bornand,French Forces of the Interior executed 76 captured members of the Milice on 24 August 1944.[16]
Those Frenchmen who managed to escape to Germany and were serving in theGerman Navy, theNational Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), theOrganisation Todt 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).[15] The unit also included some remaining personnel from the disbandedLegion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF) and the SS-VolunteerSturmbrigade France (SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Frankreich").[15] Later in February 1945, the unit was renamed theCharlemagne Division of theWaffen-SS. At this time it had a strength of 7,340 men: 1,200 men from the LVF, 1,000 from theSturmbrigade, 2,500 from the Milice, 2,000 from the NSKK, and 640 who were formerKriegsmarine and naval police.[17] Some of its surviving members were among the last defenders of Hitler's bunker, fighting suicidally to the end in the ruins of Berlin.
An unknown number ofmiliciens managed to escape prison or execution, either by going underground or fleeing abroad. A few were later prosecuted. The most notable of these wasPaul Touvier, the former commander of the Milice inLyon. In 1994, he was convicted of ordering the retaliatory execution of seven Jews atRillieux-la-Pape. He died in prison two years later.
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.
The choice of the third letter of the Greek alphabet as a badge was explained thus: the gamma is the zodiacal sign of the Ram and therefore of force, but Aries (the Ram) is also the segment of spring (21st March to 20th April), it is therefore additionally symbolic of rejuvenation.
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