Collaboration with the state placed the French police and gendarmerie at the service of the German occupiers. The Vichy police enforced the Nazis’ anti-Semitic directives and sometimes even went beyond their demands. Police Resistance remained weak until 1944.
In July and August 1940, Pétain enacted anti-Jewish laws in France without any particular pressure from the Germans, and the Vichy police implemented state collaboration. The Paris Police Prefecture established a registry of Jews, and on October 3, 1940, the first law “on the status of Jews” was enacted. By the end of 1940, the French police were handing over German political refugees to the German authorities. A major police reform was enacted by the law of April 23, 1941: the creation of the GMR (Mobile Security Groups), a National School for the training of senior officers, and regional police academies. The Vichy government allocated significant resources to this new police force.
In October 1941, the Prefect of Police personally handed over to the Nazis a list of hostages to be shot.
In late 1941, with the creation of parallel police forces (Special Anti-Communist and Anti-Jewish Brigades, a police unit targeting secret societies such as the Freemasons, etc.), repression intensified.
The French police themselves were responsible for rounding up Jews (including children) and sending them to transit camps prior to deportation. The roundups of foreign Jews, on July 16 and 17, 1942, in Paris (known as the “Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup”) and the one on August 26 in the “free” zone were entirely planned by the French high administration and police under the orders of René Bousquet. The majority of these Jews were exterminated at the Auschwitz extermination camp.
In January 1943, the French police assisted the Nazis during the massive roundup in Marseille. In the months that followed, the Special Brigades of the Paris Police Prefecture hunted down Jewish members of the M.O.I. Resistance and decimated their ranks.
For the most part, French police officers follow orders; however, it is worth noting that 54 police officers and gendarmes in France were recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” in 2009, and 68 in 2017. A few, for example, warned the Jewish section of the M.O.I. of the impending Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundup, which could have been even deadlier. Another example: thanks to seven police officers from the immigration office in Nancy, more than 350 Jews were able to take refuge the day before the roundup on July 19, 1942.
Until 1944, only a small number of police officers were involved in the Resistance. But on August 19, 1944, 200 police officers seized the Police Headquarters and took part in the uprising that led to the Liberation of Paris.
References:
— Joly, Laurent, 2018. *The State Against the Jews*. Éditions Grasset.
— Berlière, Jean-Marc, 2018, *Polices des temps noirs – France 1939–1945*. Éditions Perrin
— French Committee for Yad Vashem
