The 'Dark Years' in France(l940-1944), resulted from its defeat by Nazi Germany and the subsequent German occupation, brought about hundreds of thousands of 'Collaborators' which means 'collaborators with enemy'. When Collaborators' and Vichy France w...
The 'Dark Years' in France(l940-1944), resulted from its defeat by Nazi Germany and the subsequent German occupation, brought about hundreds of thousands of 'Collaborators' which means 'collaborators with enemy'. When Collaborators' and Vichy France was finally defeated by France of Resistance, the purge of Collaborators arose as one of the prime issues to be settled in rebuilding a new nation. Although the purge at the first stage had been proceeded in an extrajudicial manner, it began to bear judicial forms later on.
The extrajudicial purge which generally means 'summary execution' was carried out much more before than after the liberation, and more exactly, mainly between the Normandy landing of the Allied Forces (June 6 in 1944) and the Liberation of many departments (October to November in 1944). Therefore, it is inferable that most of the extrajudicial purge was a part of conflicts between the forces of Nazi Germany-Vichy France and Resistants.
As France was gradually liberated since june 1944 and the Provisional Government led by de Gaulle was nationally installed, the extrajudicial purge (from the below) shifted its gear to judicial and legal manner presided over by the national authorities. However, it should be noted that there were not so much differences as similarities between the two forms of purge and the extrajudicial purge was only possible choice before establishing appropriate judicial structure.
The judicial purge of Collaborators did not satisfy either' those who thirsted for the immediate and thorough purge or others who cried for tolerance. The first unsatisfied were the groups which had resisted the German occupation and Vichy authorities. They were deeply disappointed and criticized the delayed, long and unequal trials, and the generally deficient punishment. As the passion for purge calmed down, it was the opposite side that expressed its dissatisfaction and resentment. They were men and women who had been purged or expected to be purged, and who claimed that more than 100,000 had been killed by the extrajudicial purge and the judicial purge was also cruel, and put the purge itself into question.
However, on the whole, the purge of Collaborators in Liberated France was not a failure. Above all, the scale and scope of the judicial purge was quite impressive: Out of more than 320,000 who were suspected of collaborating with enemy, about 110,000 stood trial, about 80,000 convicted. 770 executed, and more than 38,000 imprisoned. The stereotyped view claimed by Vichy participants and anti-communists that more than 100,000 were dead was exaggerated about ten times. And it was because of the bewildering nature of the purge as an unprecedented task in an unprecedented condition that it had not rapidly been completed and had unevenly been conducted by category, sector, and status of the suspects.