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April 22, 2022

France in the 1940s Through a German Soldier’s Lens

In 1940, France was invaded and quickly defeated by Nazi Germany. France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north, an Italian occupation zone in the southeast and an unoccupied territory, the rest of France, which consisted of the southern French metropolitan territory (two-fifths of pre-war metropolitan France) and the French empire, which included the two protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco, and French Algeria; the Vichy government, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, ruled the unoccupied territory. Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London.

France in the 1940s

From 1942 to 1944, about 160,000 French citizens, including around 75,000 Jews, were deported to death camps and concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland. In September 1943, Corsica was the first French metropolitan territory to liberate itself from the Axis. On 6 June 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy and in August they invaded Provence.

Over the following year the Allies and the French Resistance emerged victorious over the Axis powers and French sovereignty was restored with the establishment of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). This interim government, established by de Gaulle, aimed to continue to wage war against Germany and to purge collaborators from office. It also made several important reforms (suffrage extended to women, creation of a social security system).

These vintage photos from Kai Heinrich were taken by a German soldier that show street scenes of France in the 1940s.

Cabourg, France in the 1940s

Cathédrale Saint-Cyr et Sainte-Julitte de Nevers, France in the 1940s

Cathédrale Saint-Cyr et Sainte-Julitte de Nevers, France in the 1940s

Cathédrale Saint-Cyr et Sainte-Julitte de Nevers, France in the 1940s

Chapelle des Carmélites de Dijon, France, circa 1940s

Chapelle Sainte-Marie, Nevers, France in the 1940s

Cour de Bar, Dijon, France, circa 1940s

Dijon, France, circa 1940s

Église Notre-Dame de Dijon, France, winter 1940s

Évreux, France in the 1940s

Hôtel de Ville, Paris, circa 1940s

La chapelle Sainte-Marie, Nevers, France in the 1940s

Le quai de Mantoue in Nevers, France in the 1940s

Maison Maillard, Dijon, France, circa 1940s

Palace of Versailles, Paris, circa 1940s

Palais des ducs de Bourgogne (Dukes of Burgundy's Palace), Dijon, Côte-d'Or departement, Burgundy, France, circa 1940s

Palais ducal de Nevers, France in the 1940s

Pont ferroviaire de Nevers, France in the 1940s

Pont ferroviaire de Nevers, France in the 1940s

Rue de calvaire, Nevers, France in the 1940s

Rue du Palais Dijon, France in the 1940s

Seine-bridge, Paris in the 1940s

Somewhere in France in the 1940s

Somewhere in France in the 1940s

Somewhere in France in the 1940s

Somewhere in France in the 1940s

Somewhere in France in the 1940s

St. Philibert, Dijon, France, circa 1940s

St. Philibert, Dijon, France, circa 1940s

Statue of Clemenceau at the Petit Palais, Place Clemenceau, Paris, circa 1940s

Statue of François-Jean Lefebvre de La Barre in the Square Nadar, in front of the Basilique du Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, Paris, circa 1940s

This fountain stands in Nevers, France in the 1940s

Unknown place in France in the 1940s

Unknown place in France in the 1940s

Unknown place in France in the 1940s

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