French prisoners of war in World War II
Although no precise estimates exist, the number of French soldiers captured by Nazi Germany during the Battle of France between May and June 1940 is generally recognised around 1.8 million, equivalent to around 10 percent of the total adult male population of France at the time. After a brief period of captivity in France, most of the prisoners were deported to Germany. In Germany, prisoners were incarcerated in Stalag or Oflag prison camps, according to rank, but the vast majority were soon transferred to work details (Kommandos) working in German agriculture or industry. Prisoners from the French colonial empire, however, remained in camps in France with poor living conditions as a result of Nazi racial ideologies.
French prisoners of war being marched away from the front, May 1940
A French Char B1 tank destroyed during the fighting in May 1940
View of a German prison camp, Stalag VIII-A, in Görlitz
Reconstructed living quarters of French prisoners at Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum near Trier
Vichy France, officially the French State, was the French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy. Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under the harsh terms of the 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany, it adopted a policy of collaboration. Though Paris was nominally its capital, the government established itself in the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "free zone", where it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies. The occupation of France by Nazi Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country, but in November 1942 the Germans and Italians occupied the remainder of Metropolitan France, ending any pretence of independence by the Vichy government.
Propaganda poster for the Vichy Regime's Révolution nationale program, 1942
French prisoners of war are marched off under German guard, 1940
Philippe Pétain meeting Hitler in October 1940
French colonial prisoner in German captivity, 1940[failed verification]