France,
the Nazis, and Gun Control, By Janet Levy,
8/2/18.
In
1935, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, who later served in the Vichy
government during the Nazis' four-year occupation of France, commanded French
citizens to surrender their firearms. Laval and France's ruling
parties feared social revolution and banned "war" weapons,
instituting strict gun registration policies. They believed that
repressive limits on civilian gun ownership were necessary at a time of
Depression-sparked unrest and ongoing conflicts among various political
factions. Strict time limits for firearms registration and harsh
penalties for noncompliance, including forfeiture, fines, and imprisonment,
were put in place. Laval's government did not foresee the impact
these restrictive measures would have on a Nazi-conquered France just five
years later, when firearms surrender would be required under threat of death.
In Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and
Resistance,
attorney Stephen P. Halbrook explores the impact and efficacy of gun control
measures on Wehrmacht-controlled France and how these measures hindered the
French Resistance's fight against Nazi tyranny. The author asserts
that Laval's 1935 gun control efforts left the French people vulnerable to the
Nazi invaders and ill equipped to deal with the Nazi invasion of 1940, plus
simplified the Nazi efforts to confiscate firearms and impede a French
resistance.
In
1940, when the Vichy government negotiated an armistice with Germany after the
successful German blitzkrieg, Laval's pre-war firearms registration proved to
be a boon to Nazi disarmament efforts. Halbrook explains that Hitler
based his occupation model on the historic premise that conquerors who allowed
subjugated populations to possess arms were ultimately defeated. So,
when he rose to power in 1933 Germany, Hitler disarmed all "enemies of the
state," including all Jews.
The
French occupation was unique, with a German-occupied zone and the unoccupied
Vichy regime, administered by Marshall Philipe Pétain. Hitler's
forces depended on armed French police to control French citizens and, over
time, confiscate their weapons. In other occupied territories where
the Wehrmacht retained sole responsibility for maintaining law and order, gun
ownership was banned outright, except for Germans. Vichy France
pursued a progression of increasingly severe gun confiscation edicts with
multiple periods of amnesty and ever-expanding lists of illegal weapons,
Halbrook says.
Initially,
all firearms, ammunition, hand grenades, and other weaponry were required to be
surrendered with 24 hours under threat of death, forced labor, or
prison. Even hunting guns were prohibited and handed over to the
French police for safekeeping. In addition, the gendarmes themselves
were limited to a rubber truncheon and a pistol with nine
rounds. Eventually, bayonets and swords were also
banned. The bans expanded to anti-German flyers, radio transmitters,
and public assemblies, followed by measures against Jews, restrictions on
hunting, and other repressive constraints.
From
1940 to 1941, when the French police were responsible for collecting guns,
executions were rare, Halbrook reports. In 1942, when armed
resistance accelerated and the Nazi SS assumed police duties, executions for
firearms possession increased markedly. To deter gun-hoarding, the
Nazis publicized executions in newspapers and plastered brightly colored
posters with ominous warnings on city walls. French and German
police conducted frequent house-to-house searches and solicited tips from
informers. Nonetheless, the Germans found collecting firearms a
daunting, near impossible task. Despite the death penalty, many
civilians risked keeping their guns.
From
his research and survivors' responses to questionnaires about German arms
collections, Halbrook learned that although hundreds of thousands of guns were
surrendered, many French citizens hid weapons, often burying them in their
yards or in underground caches. Although the author found no reliable
data on the total number of firearms in France before the Nazi invasion, he
discovered that out of 3 million hunting guns, only 835,000 were turned in to
the Nazis.
As
the Resistance expanded and accelerated in 1942, its need for firearms
grew. Défense de la France, an underground newspaper, captured
the mood of the partisans: "[o]btain firearms; a rifle, a submachine gun,
a light machine gun, a machine gun[.] ... The day will come."
When
the U.S. entered the war, the morale of the occupying Germans plummeted,
spurring Resistance activities. Arms concealment became more
efficient and organized, despite continuing cooperation between the German
military police and French gendarmes. The Nazis tightened gun
restrictions, issuing a new order to execute anyone who knew a fellow citizen
with a gun and failed to inform authorities. No further amnesties
were issued, and those possessing arms were summarily shot.
By
1942, Hitler viewed the Vichy government as uncooperative, Halbrook writes,
although the French people perceived the government as enemy
accomplices. By spring of that year, General Charles de Gaulle, in
exile in England, broadcast a call from the BBC to rise against the
Nazis. On May Day 1942, as many as 100,000 demonstrators in Lyon
screamed, "Death to Laval" and sang the French national anthem,
famous for its call to arms, "Aux
armes, citoyens."
Shortly
thereafter, Hitler brought in the SS to assume command over the French and
German police. Press censorship and anti-Jewish policies
began. Jews were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David, and the
French police under SS direction began gathering Jews to deport them to death
camps. Resistance family members were dealt with harshly; male
relatives were shot and women sent to hard labor.
Two
watershed events helped mobilize and unify the Resistance during this dark
time: in 1942, 12,000 Jews were herded into the Vélodrome d'Hiver for
deportation to death camps, and in 1943, the Laval-enabled Obligatory Labor
Conscription (STO) required all 18- to 20-year-old males to become forced
laborers in Germany. Resistance groups began urging Jews to arm
themselves, hide their children with others, and join the
partisans. The STO brought a steady stream of recruits as young men
fled conscription. They retreated into the mountains, acquired
firearms, and engaged in sabotage, ambushing supply convoys, derailing trains,
and attacking patrols. Still, Halbrook recounts that Laval continued
to collaborate with the Nazis, delaying their defeat. Under Laval's
leadership, the Milice, a political paramilitary organization, was formed in
1943 to repress anti-Nazi forces and hunt down Resistance members.
Resistance
groups began to seize arms from unguarded collection depots, hidden French
military stores, and local German forces. Most of their weapons came
from British and American airdrops, often in exchange for
intelligence. Allied supplies were limited by weapons scarcity,
logistical problems, and political considerations, as some Resistance groups
were part of the French Communist Party who sought a communist takeover of
France following liberation.
By
the end of 1943, news of an Allied invasion circulated, and Resistance groups
urged all citizens to gather arms and prepare each house as a fort to await the
German departure. On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day
invasion, the BBC sent coded messages to the Resistance. They were
to perform sabotage operations and diversionary attacks before and during the
next day's landings at Normandy. Although suffering many casualties,
Resistance groups instigated street fights, including sniper shots at
Germans. They blocked some German lines of retreat and provided
valuable intelligence to the Allied troops. The Germans fought back
viciously and, in at least one case, razed the entire village of
Oradour-sur-Glane and killed almost all its inhabitants. Fighting
erupted in Paris as an estimated 25,000 partisans faced a remaining German
force of 20,000. Hitler insisted that Paris was not to be
surrendered. As the situation deteriorated, he ordered the City of
Lights torched. The commander of Paris refused.
By
August 1944, de Gaulle resumed control of France and ordered dissolution of the
Resistance militias. His order resulted in deep resistance and
resentment, Halbrook recounts. The partisans had fought and died for France,
while he had remained safely ensconced in England.
Despite
the many gun control and confiscatory measures, first under Laval, who was
later executed for treason, and then the Nazis, many French did not
comply. The value of an armed citizenry to resist tyranny was
demonstrated. The author notes little that correlation existed
between severe punishments, including the threat of death, and arms possession
or reduction of attacks on German occupiers.
Gun
Control in Nazi-Occupied France raises
interesting questions about the enforceability of firearms registration,
confiscation, and prohibition. In the end, an armed French citizenry
proved to be an asset for the fight against an occupying enemy and ably
assisted the regular armies. Halbrook illuminates the role armed
civilians played, conducting the only armed resistance in France until D-Day
and paving the way for the Allied invasion and ultimate victory.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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