“To, and the French are here!»
World famous Israeli historian Zeev Sternhel, deceased 21 June 2020 of the year, thought, that fascism was not born in Italy, but has French roots. Formation of fascist ideology, he claimed, started in France decades earlier, than in Italy and Germany. Zeev Sternhel considers the founder of this ideological line to be the French writer Maurice Barres (1862-1923), which produced a cross between radical nationalism and syndicalism.
Maurice Barres
"Freedom-loving, democratic and left-leaning France, what we used to think of it, in fact, before the Second World War, it was nothing more than a myth ", - Russian historian Andrei Vasilchenko writes in his book «”European Union” Hitler ", commenting on this statement of Zeev Sternhel.
Zeev Sternhel
Notably, that at one time fascism was understood as a "European idea". German Ambassador to Berlin Otto Abetz 23 June 1941 of the year wrote to the Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop: “The European idea is deeply rooted in France. Since, how Europe became associated primarily with Germany, this idea works exclusively for us ".
Bolshevism against Europe. Campaign poster in Paris before the attacks on the USSR
French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand in the late 1920s put forward the idea of uniting Europe. AT 1934 year, French national radicals brought more than 40 thousand people and almost seized power. "Crosses of Fire" by Colonel Francois de la Roca, advocated an authoritarian restructuring of the political system, numbered 300 thousand members. A supporter of Franco-German rapprochement and the creation of a "New Europe" on the basis of this alliance was also the Secretary of State of the French government Jacques Benoit-Meshen, insisting on, that Rome and Berlin recognize France as an equal partner on the "axis", the third most important fascist power after Germany and Italy ... Emigrant writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky, then living in France, captured by these sentiments, wrote enthusiastic letters to Hitler, comparing him to Jeanne d'Arc, designed to "free Europe from the devil", and went on a visit to Rome to Mussolini, who honored him with a personal audience.
French fascists, true, did not take into account, that Hitler, former World War I soldier, wanted revenge on the French for the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles. And even when the Fuhrer attacked France, the French were not going to fight with him. French soldiers just, surrendered, and through 43 days after the attack, German soldiers were already marching through the streets of Paris.
German officers in a Parisian cafe
Everyday life in German-occupied northern France resumed immediately. Shop owners, shops and restaurants rejoiced - they were pleased with an unprecedented number of new visitors. Hitler's soldiers walked the streets of Paris, as tourists, were photographed against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, the officers sipped French cognac in a cafe and gallantly presented flowers to the French ladies ...
Parisian women with German soldiers
German historian C. Haffer wrote: "AT 1940-1942 years in almost all captured countries, especially in France, there was a broad willingness to recover from defeat and obediently join the German "new order" in Europe. AT 1940 year fascism everywhere had its supporters, and the huge impression of Germany's lightning victories did their job ".
Did not have time to form a puppet government in Vichy in southern France, how his representatives immediately turned to the German ambassador with a plan to reorganize the country. France, they thought, should become "The defensive line of Europe ... the European bastion in the Atlantic". However, the Germans have such cooperation with the country, which was already under their boots, was useless. Frustrated by the refusal, Jacques Benoit-Meshen wrote: "I thought, that Hitler will unite all continental countries, to start the assault on the Stalinist empire. I saw Alexander the Great as a model… Wasn't the fight against Bolshevism that general principle, who could give us a sense of one continent?»
For more than a year, there was no resistance to the occupiers in France at all. 32 000 informants from among the French inhabitants regularly informed the Germans about the "suspicious behavior" of their neighbors. In October 1940, the Abwehr was forced to stop accepting freelance informants, because there were too many of them in France. AT 1941 year was created "French Gestapo", where more than 32 000 former criminals. And the real Resistance unfolded only in 1944 year, when the defeat of the Reich became completely inevitable. The partisans at the peak of the struggle against the German invaders were approximately 20 thousands of people; there were many former Soviet prisoners of war among the partisans, anti-fascists from other countries. And in the "Legion of French fighters and volunteers of the national revolution" that fought with them, there were more than a million people!
Signature on the poster of the Charlemagne division: "Together with your European comrades under the sign of the SS, you will win"
In July 1941 of the year 3000 French enrolled in the "Legion of Volunteers against Bolshevism" and went to the Eastern Front. This "legion" was quickly defeated, but the number of people willing to fight against the Soviet Union did not diminish in France. AT 1944 the year the SS division "Charlemagne" was founded (Charlemagne), joined by more 7 000 French. In the last days of April 1945, they defended the Reichstag in Berlin. Exactly how many French fought on the Eastern Front along with the Germans is unknown; talk about 100 thousands. In Soviet captivity 23 000 French soldiers.
French volunteers in German uniform in the USSR
During World War II, the entire heavy industry of France worked for the Fuhrer. French-made tanks took part in the assault on the Brest Fortress. By the beginning of the Battle of Kursk from 6127 tanks and self-propelled guns of the Wehrmacht, there were about 700. In total, France and the Czech Republic provided Hitler with about 10 thousands of tanks and self-propelled guns.
they say, when in Potsdam, Field Marshal Keitel signed an agreement on the unconditional surrender of Germany and saw in the hall among the winners of the French delegation, he exclaimed in amazement: “To, and the French are here!»
So in France there will be, rather, struggling to accuse Russia of, that she wants to "rewrite history", what is recognized, that in World War II the French were in fact with Hitler at the same time.
Vladimir Malyshev
