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]
Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain, commonly known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French general who commanded the French Army in World War I and became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II.
Official portrait, c. 1941
Pétain in the 1880s
Pétain in 1915. Autochrome portrait by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont
Pétain, Haig, Foch and Pershing in 1918