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Milice française | |
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![]() Flag of the Milice | |
Active | 30 January 1943 | –15 August 1944
Country | ![]() |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Type | Paramilitary militia |
Role | Anti-partisan duties in Axis-controlled France |
Size | 25,000–30,000 |
March | Le Chant des Cohortes |
Engagements | |
Commanders | |
Ceremonial chief | Pierre Laval |
Commander | Joseph Darnand |
The Milice française (French Militia), generally called la Milice (lit. 'the militia'; French pronunciation: [milis]), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy régime (with German aid) to help fight against the French Resistance during World War II. The Milice's formal head was Vichy France's Prime Minister Pierre Laval (in office 1942 to 1944), although its chief of operations and de facto leader was Secretary General Joseph Darnand. The Milice participated in summary executions and assassinations, helping to round up Jews and résistants in France for deportation. It was the successor to Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) militia (founded in 1941). The Milice was the Vichy régime's most extreme manifestation of fascism.[2] Ultimately, Darnand envisaged the Milice as a fascist single-party political movement for the French State.[3]
Milice members frequently used torture to extract information or confessions from those whom they interrogated. The French Resistance considered the Milice more dangerous than the Gestapo or SS because its staff were native Frenchmen who understood local dialects fluently, had extensive knowledge of the towns and countryside, and knew local people and informants.[4][5]
The Milice was the ugly face of fascism in France, incorporating both a military and bellicose style and a programme and quasi-ideology. [...] In January 1944, Darnand was appointed Minister for Order, and in June, Minister of the Interior. The extreme Milice had captured power. [...] The Milice had become a state within a state. It was central to the process of repression. France was now on the threshold of becoming a fascist state.