French Labor, World War II
France 1940-1944
Synopsis
In 1940 the German forces of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich occupied France, and the Third Republic collapsed. The puppet Vichy regime dissolved French labor unions, forced collaboration with the Nazis, and deported Jewish workers to Germany. France was divided into free and occupied zones. In 1942 the pro-Hitler regime of Marshal Pétain made French labor available to the German invaders, and French youth were forced into mandatory labor service. From the beginning of the occupation, workers of the disbanded trade unions played a key role in the growing French resistance movement. Starting with individual acts of sabotage against Nazi installations, the French populace developed a network of resistance movements. A strike by Paris police and subway workers preceded the liberation of Paris in August of 1944. The postliberation government restored the labor unions and established the Fourth Republic.
Timeline
- 1921: As the Allied Reparations Commission calls for payments of 132 billion gold marks, inflation in Germany begins to climb.
- 1925: Released from Landsberg Prison, Adolf Hitler is a national celebrity, widely regarded as an emerging statesman who offers genuine solutions to Germany's problems. This year, he publishes the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which he dictated in prison to trusted confederate Rudolf Hess.
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