# How did the Vichy French justify collaborating with the Nazis?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-vichy-french-justify-collaborating-with-the-nazis/827187>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 4, 2019, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-vichy-french-justify-collaborating-with-the-nazis/827187 "2019-01-04T08:55:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-vichy-french-justify-collaborating-with-the-nazis/827187/21 "2019-01-05T16:58:53Z")

</div>

Original poster here. After reading an academic paper online,\* I think I understand a bit better how the Vichy government depicted the Germans.

Unlike some other Axis satellites - or Soviet satellites after the war - Vichy France does not seem to glorify its domineering neighbor.

Indeed, it seems to want to ignore the Germans altogether. Vichy propaganda is extremely inward-looking.

The narrative seems to have gone like this:

The decadent, immoral Third Republic launched a war, and as a result, our country experienced a kind of “divine retribution.”\*

We, Vichy France, have pulled the Third Republic’s irons out of the fire and are making the best of a bad situation.

The country is suffering because it went astray morally. It needs to atone for its sins.

We need to focus on “work, family, and homeland” - on tilling the soil and returning to our traditions.

The nation’s enemies are the British, the Jews, the Communists, and De Gaulle.

A New Order - anti-Communist and right-wing - is forming in Europe. If we play our cards right, we will thrive within it.

[All with as little direct mention of the Germans as possible!]

- “Art as Propaganda in Vichy France, 1940-1944,” digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile112592.pdf

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-vichy-french-justify-collaborating-with-the-nazis/827187.md?page=1)