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Posted 06/01/2025 4:26 pm
On 10 May 1940 the Battle for France began with Germany's attack on the Low countrys followed by an armored thrust thru the Ardennes. Six weeks later the battle was over when France surrendered and the Germans split the country in half with an occupied zone and a collaborator one called "Vichy", tho a small part of S/E France was given to Mussolini to administer as a reward for backing the Axis side.
An interesting foot note of history ; The Jews of France were relentlessly hunted down and sent to the east where most were murdered. In the German occupied zone of course it was the SS and Gestapo who mainly carried out Hitlers pogrom but all the branches of the German armed forces shamefully assisted. In Vichy France the French collaborator Police and Govt. hunted down their Jews with even more vigor then the Germans did.
A lucky few made it to the Italian occupied zone where Mussolini of all people refused to cooperate with the Final Solution and refused to turn over the Jews in his zone.
We remember this history in the form of the three main occupation coins struck in French mints during this period. The 1/2 franc and the 1 and 2 franc coins.
An interesting foot note of history ; The Jews of France were relentlessly hunted down and sent to the east where most were murdered. In the German occupied zone of course it was the SS and Gestapo who mainly carried out Hitlers pogrom but all the branches of the German armed forces shamefully assisted. In Vichy France the French collaborator Police and Govt. hunted down their Jews with even more vigor then the Germans did.
A lucky few made it to the Italian occupied zone where Mussolini of all people refused to cooperate with the Final Solution and refused to turn over the Jews in his zone.
We remember this history in the form of the three main occupation coins struck in French mints during this period. The 1/2 franc and the 1 and 2 franc coins.
