French Nazi Collaborators to be Named

French history into and during the Second World War is one of ignorance, ignominy, and undeserved later honours. I have to state at this point that members of the French Résistance carrying out their admirable work on French soil are wholeheartedly omitted from any disparaging remarks in this article. They are to be admired for what they did under the most difficult of circumstances.

The archive containing all paperwork from the period of 1940 to 1944 will be made available to research and the interested public by online publication starting in 2015. For reason of its own, the first post war government of France had put these papers under a classification order for 75 years. The haste with which this happened at the time will probably mean that we will get some quite scandalous revelations relating to honoured French citizens of the time.

Since the liberation of France, all papers relating to the war years were kept in boxes in the basement of the Police Museum. They are currently digitalised and will be released online after the 75 year ban is lifted, starting in 2015 for the year 1940. The papers contain all police files of the period including what was passed on to the Gestapo.

It is hoped that the archive will shed light on the dealings of the Brigade Spéciale, the French Gestapo which hunted down resistance fighters and other ‘enemies’ of European Nazi regimes. The French government after the capitulation in 1940 was responsible for the deportation and execution of several ten thousand people including gipsies, homosexuals, Jews, and socialists. A ruling by the Council of State of France of last year declared the Vichy government as responsible for the atrocities.

The regular French police force under its leader René Bosquet formed the backbone of Gestapo activities in France and was responsible for the gathering of all information that would be used by the Brigade Spéciale and the Gestapo when hounding human beings. Being called ‘precious collaborators’ by Heinrich Himmler, it must have made their day.

René Bosquet was one of many prominent collaborators. He was protected by consecutive French governments before finally being brought to court in 1993. He was shot dead just before his trial for crimes against humanity was due to begin. It is open to conjecture if the shooting was done by someone with revenge on their mind, another collaborator, or in a government cover up.

The archive should contain a lot of explosive information about post war dignitaries who were protected by the French government. It may be assumed, though, that the archives have been cleaned thoroughly over the years. This is still France, after all. French governments have managed to keep quiet over the numbers of Frenchmen who entered the German army willingly during the war. They would make sure that no detracting information on citizens of the Grande Nation would become public property.