Vichy France (23 page)

⁹⁸
Laval’s 1 November 1942 speech is contained in the unpublished diary of General Bridoux.
DFCAA
, V, 445, 446–62;
FRUS
, 1940, II, 418, 630. See p. 91 above.

⁹⁹
Abetz (Paris) 1595 to Ribbentrop, 26 December 1940 (T-120/587/243398–403);
FRUS
, 1940, II, 411; T-120/368/207282–85. Maurice Catoire,
La Direction des Services de l’armistice
, 44, says only 120,000 prisoners of war were ever liberated, mostly after the Syrian fighting in 1941.

¹⁰⁰
Hencke (Wiesbaden) No. 36 to Berlin of 7 July 1940 (T-120/121/119692); Ribbentrop (Berlin) to Abetz No. 480 of 16 August 1940 (T-120/121/119810).

¹⁰¹
United States and Swiss protests may be found in U.S. Dept. of State Serial Files 740.0011 Eur War 1939/6827 and 851.0./181.

¹⁰²
T-120/3699H/
passim
; Abetz (Paris) 1392 to Rintelen of 4 December 1940 (T-120/587/243360–61). Laval was supposed to try again at his forthcoming meeting with Ribbentrop. See
DFCAA
, V, 445. The United States wasn’t told about German pressures, but only that Pétain’s visit had been postponed. (740–0011 Eur War 1939/7043). M. Martin du Gard,
Chronique de Vichy
(Paris, 1948), 94, like so many postwar French memoirs, is diametrically wrong on the Paris visit.

¹⁰³
Abetz (Paris) 1556 to Ribbentrop of 18 December 1940 (T-120/587/243366 ff.; also printed in
Mémorandum d’Abetz
, 44–54).

¹⁰⁴
T-120/587/243383 ff.

¹⁰⁵
Bouthillier, I, 177 ff.

¹⁰⁶
For Laval’s designs on Peyrouton’s office, see
DGFP
, XI, no. 234, p. 491; Abetz’ view is in Abetz (Paris) 1392 of 18 December (T-120/587/243360–61 or
Memorandum d’Abetz
, 44–55.

¹⁰⁷
General Keitel also used the term “kalte Schulter.” It was no longer German intent “to bring about collaboration” with Vichy, he wrote General Thomas on 10 January 1941. T-77/OKW-2012/5, 596, 112–13.

¹⁰⁸
T-120/1540/372456–58; T-120/587/243362; T-120/121/119713.

¹⁰⁹
All these gestures were reported to Berlin and may best be followed in the files of Ernst von Weizsäcker, T-120/221.

¹¹⁰
Hencke (Wiesbaden) nos. 4 and 6, 6 January 1941 (T-120/378/209347/50). These two telegrams are somewhat more effusive than Doyen’s own texts as published in
DFCAA
, III, 403. A German account of the Darlan-Hitler meeting at Beauvais is published in
DGFP
, XI, no. 564, pp. 950–55.

¹¹¹
Hencke to Wiehl, 6 January 1941 (
DGFP
, XI, no. 654, pp. 1096–99); Hencke HWIX no. 3982 of 6 February 1941 (T-120/378/209443, 209451–52).

¹¹²
Le Procès Flandin
, 200.

¹¹³
U.S. Dept. of State Serial File 851.5018/95; Hencke (Wiesbaden) nos. 4 and 6 to Berlin, 6 January 1941 (T-120/378/209347–50; 209467–72); E. L. Woodward,
British Foreign Policy in the Second World War
(London, 1962), 100;
DFCAA
, IV, 52, 73, 112. François Piétri,
Mes Années d’Espagne
(Paris, 1954), is not helpful for Piétri’s service as French ambassador in Madrid during this period.

¹¹⁴
T-120/221/149019–20, 149070, 149107, 149113;
Le Procès Flandin
, 191–200. Minutes of the “armistice meeting” on airplane construction of 29 January 1941:
DFCAA
, IV, 68–72.

¹¹⁵
The best contemporary source for these developments is the “France” file of Ernst von Weizsäcker, T-120/221. General Huntziger’s statement will be found in T-120/587/243437; also published in
DGFP
, Series D, XI, no. 736.

¹¹⁶
Abetz (Paris) 94 to Ribbentrop, 12 January 1941 (T-120/221/149022–24), also printed in
Mémorandum d’Abetz
, 68–71; Abetz (Paris) 763 to Ribbentrop, 6 March 1941 (T-120/221/149146–47).

¹¹⁷
T-120/365/20637–40; The Halder Diaries, 28 January 1941; Abetz (Paris) 1 to Berlin, 1 January 1941 (T-120/221/148994); Abetz (Paris) 697 to Berlin, 28 February 1941 (T-120/221/149138–39).

¹¹⁸
Abetz (Paris) 379 to Ribbentrop, 4 February 1941 (T-120/221/149088–90). Also published in
DGFP
, XI, no. 645.

¹¹⁹
Ribbentrop’s letter and Abetz’ reply are in T-120/F10/142–43. They are also Nuremberg document NG-5471.

¹²⁰
Abetz (Paris) 674 to Berlin of 27 February 1941 (T-120/221/149131–34).

¹²¹
Weizsäcker memorandum of 8 January to Ribbentrop (T-120/221/149010);
DGFP
, XI, no. 654, pp. 1096–99.

¹²²
DGFP
, XI, no. 531.

¹²³
The Halder Diaries
, 28 January 1941;
Memorandum d’ Abetz
, 79, 93; Hitler’s order of no contact is reported on January 22 in T-120/221/149066.

¹²⁴
Laval set this condition when he met Darlan in Paris on 3 February 1941. Abetz (Paris) 379 to Ribbentrop, 4 February 1941 (T-120/221/149088 ff.). He obtained these terms in April 1942.

¹²⁵
Abetz (Paris) 692, 28 February 1941 (T-120/221/149137).

¹²⁶
Jules Moch,
Rencontres avec Darlan et Eisenhower
(Paris, 1968), 22. In the absence of any scholarly study of Darlan, Moch is a useful corrective to Alain Darlan,
L’Amiral Darlan parle
(Paris, 1952).

¹²⁷
Moch, 71 ff.

¹²⁸
Alain Darlan, 39.

¹²⁹
Alexander Werth,
France 1940–55
(New York, 1956), 112.

¹³⁰
Leahy (Vichy) to Department of State, no. 89, 21 January 1941 (U.S. Dept. of State Serial File 740.0011 Eur War 1939/7820). See also William L. Langer,
Our Vichy Gamble
(New York, 1947), 123.

¹³¹
For instruction to sharpen Franco-British conflict over the blockade, see Deutsche Waffenstillstandskommission, Gruppe Wehrmacht—1a Nr. 370/41, 15 March 1941, to OKW/Abt. Ausland (T-77/OKW-999/5,632, 956). Keitel instructed the Armistice Commission on 6 June “not to work for war between France and Britain or the United States.” OKW/W.F.St./Abt. L (IV/k Nr. 001082/41 g.Kdos of 6 June 1941 (T-77/OKW-1444/5,594,731).

¹³²
Le Temps
, 2 June 1941 (also T-120/221/149379–88). Murphy (Vichy) 1140 to Secretary of State, 14 December 1940 (FRUS, 1940, II, 490). See also
FRUS
, 1941, II, 189, for similar views. Darlan still believed in November 1941 that Britain would have to seek a compromise peace (U.S. Dept. of State Serial File 851.00/2503). For Darlan’s blame of the Third Republic and Britain for thwarting France’s rightful overseas role, see his preface to Espagnac du Ravay,
Vingt ans de politique navale
(Grenoble, 1941), published on luxurious paper in that year of penury.

¹³³
Abetz (Paris) 548, 15 February 1941 (T-120/221/149106);
Pétain et les allemands: Mémorandum d’Abetz sur les rapports franco-allemands
(Paris, 1948), 79–84.

¹³⁴
For Darlan’s warnings about the social risks of continued war, see
FRUS
, 1941, II, 185, 189; Leahy (Vichy) 89 to Dept. of State (U.S. Dept. of State Serial File 740.0011 Eur War 1939/7820); there is a fuller account of the Morocco armistice inspection struggle in my
Parades and Politics at Vichy
(Princeton, 1966), 113, 221–26.

¹³⁵
For the Bouthillier visit, see Schleier (Paris) 1291 to Schwarzmann, 25 April 1941 (T-120/221/149248 or T-120/3485H/019450).
Ministère public c/Lehideux
, 5.
Ministère public c/Jacques Barnaud
, 10. Berthelot’s letter of 8 May 1941 to Richard Hemmen, in
Ministère public c/Berthelot
, and Hemmen’s report of 7 May of Berthelot’s initiatives, T-120/221/149289.
Mémorandum d’Abetz
, 79–84.

¹³⁶
I. S. O. Playfair,
The Mediterranean and Middle East
, 4 vols. (London, 1954–59), and W. N. Medlicott,
The Economic Blockade
(London, 1952–59), I, 557–66.

¹³⁷
Serial 221, frames 149159–60.
FRUS.
T-77/OKW-999, 5, 632, 956; T-120/378/209364–66. At the same time, on March 10, Darlan approved the Murphy-Weygand agreements for the shipment of supplies from the United States to North Africa. Langer, 135–36.

¹³⁸
The declaration is published in
Le Temps
for 2 June 1941. Langer, 155 ff.

¹³⁹
Abetz (Paris) 323 to Berlin, 26 April 1941 (T-120/221/149149). Keitel thought that Darlan had been influenced by the German success in Yugoslavia (T-77/OKW-1444/5,594,751 ff.), but he had wanted such a chance all along. For the profound effect of German success in the Balkans upon French public opinion in the spring of 1941, see German intelligence reports, May 1941 (T-120/221/149371–72), and the new doubts about the possibility of Allied victory in Jean Guéhenno,
Journal des années noires
, 11 April 1941. “For the first time I tell myself that the defeat may be definitive.”

¹⁴⁰
Woermann memorandum no. 366 of 3 May 1941 (T-120/221/149271); Abetz (Paris) 1376 to Ribbentrop, 5 May 1941 (T-120/221/149272–74); Abetz (Paris) to Ritter, 6 May 1941 (T-120/221/149277–79).

¹⁴¹
For the Berchtesgaden meeting, the best contemporary account is the notes of the translator, Schmitt. The Protocols of Paris are published in
DFCAA
, IV, 472–80. A German text may be found in OKW/2012, frames 3, 596, 066 ff.

¹⁴²
Details of these negotiations may be found in T-120/221/149271–89.

¹⁴³
E.g., OKW guidelines in OKW/1444, frame 5,594,751. Richtlinien für die Verhandlungen der Waffenstillstandskommission. OKW WFSt/Abt L (IV, 1082), 6 June.

¹⁴⁴
Keitel order of mission to General Warlimont, OKW WFSt/Abt. L 111/M. Nr. 00929/41 g.Kdos. of 19 May 1941 (T-77/OKW-1444/5,594,767–78).

¹⁴⁵
The Darlan telegram of 14 May 1941 to Hitler may be found in Generalstab des Heeres, Operationsabteilung, T-78/H2/184/6,428,758 ff.). The Darlan message is printed in
La France militaire
, 14 June 1941.

¹⁴⁶
The phrase is Darlan’s own account of Berchtesgaden.
DFCAA
, IV, 415 ff., 459 ff., 560 ff.

¹⁴⁷
The Laval-Goering meeting may be found in Pariser Botschaft, Geheime Akten der Politischen Registratur, “Beziehungen Frankreichs zu Deutschland,” Binder 98–100 (T-120/3485/E019424–29). For Darlan’s urgent efforts to obtain some major concession to release in a communiqué after the British bombardment of Palmyra and Aleppo, during May 15–19, see Unterstaatssekretär Woermann file (T-120/589/243494 ff.).