Germanys Defeat of France

David Atilano

Hist138

#2

Germany’s military defeat of France and the establishment of a friendly Vichy government was a huge victory for Germany. The nation of France had many things to offer Germany, war materials, and labor being the most important. With half of France occupied and the other half under German influence, the Germans were able to pass polices and decrees to further enhance Germany’s war effort. Germanys rule over France was more lenient then how the Germans treated other countries it invaded. However they did make many demands of France, and still persecuted the Jewish people. The French never agreed to fight alongside the Germans in the War, but with accepting Germany’s decrees and allowing the Germans to control the government, the French still aided in Germanys war effort. This paper will show a few of German policies that affected both Germany and France.

The One thing Germany needed was more skilled workers for its war effort. One of the most interesting policies Germany implemented in the French armistice was the trading of POW’s for French skilled workers. Germany gave France the opportunity to send three skilled workers into Germany and they would release one POW. This worked out well for both France and Germany, the French get their brave soldiers returned to them and since a lot of French wanted jobs they sent Germany the skilled workers they desperately needed. The end result was 650,000 French civilians worked in Germany during the war.

The Germans still focused on the Jewish problems started on 27 September, 1940 to identify Jewish people in France. The first policy was statuts des juifs, which denied Jewish people the ability to be professors or to hold any public offices. Within a year there would be mass arrests of Jews and deportation to Germany concentration camps. Three thousands Jews were killed in French camps, another thousand were executed. Seventy six thousand Jewish were deported and only twenty-five hundred...