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The Three Frances: 1940-1944, Sarah Fishman

Honors Papers

France during the German Occupation was divided into two zones, the northern two/thirds, directly occupied by German troops, and the southern zone, which remained until 1942 an independent French state. However France, divided more than physically, can also be broken down into three groups, the Collaborators and the Resisters, who responded actively to the Occupation, and Passive France, the large majority of French people who allowed events to run their course without attempting actively to shape them.

This thesis, rather than a history of France from 1940 through 1944, will examine these three categories of response to the occupation. Why …