Today, many Christians view abortion as the only moral issue that matters, that they do not care what other political stands a party takes, if a party is against abortion, that is the party Christians should support. When we look back at the history of Vichy France, and this is the only enthusiastically pro-Catholic French regime after the French Revolution, we must ask the inevitable question: What are the dangers of single-issue politics, when that single issue is abortion? The danger of such a narrow view is apparent when we review the history of the fascist regime of Vichy France that collaborated with the conquering Nazis. The leaders of this pro-Catholic Vichy regime were also deeply anti-Semitic and cooperated with the Germans to persecute the Jews from the earliest days of the regime. The Vichy regime was also deeply xenophobic in its immigration policies. We will learn about: • How the Dreyfus Affair caused anti-Semitism to fester in France. • How World War I set the stage for World War II in France. • How the collaborationist Vichy government made a big show of being pro-Catholic and pro-life. • How Collaboration with the Nazis decreased as the Nazis started to lose the war, and how the Resistance movement increased in strength. • How Christianity fared under Fascist Vichy France and after the war. • How the Vichy regime adopted many pro-Catholic laws and policies while it sent its Jewish citizens to the Nazi death camps. • How many French joined the Milice, the French secret police, who were more brutal than the Gestapo. This YouTube video: https://youtu.be/VRQG_uQSZiw Main Vichy France video: https://youtu.be/yYpNrhpmsYw © Copyright 2022: Please support our channel by purchasing the books we discuss from Amazon, we receive a small associate’s commission: Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, Revised Edition, by Robert O. Paxton: https://amzn.to/3m5cRCT Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France, by W. D. Halls: https://amzn.to/3xSWX0u See our blogs: Vichy France Regime, Blog 1, Pro-Life, Pro-Catholic, and Fascist http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-regime-blog-1-pro-life-pro-catholic-and-fascist/ Vichy France, Blog 2, Collaborating with the Germans in the Early Years, 1940-1942 http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-blog-2-collaborating-with-the-germans-in-the-early-years-1940-1942/ Vichy France, Blog 3, The Tide Turns, Resistance and Collaboration http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-blog-3-the-tide-turns-resistance-and-collaboration/ Vichy France, Blog 4, Christianity in Vichy France http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/vichy-france-blog-4-christianity-in-vichy-france/

2. Today, many Christians view abortion as the only moral
issue that matters, that they do not care what other
political stands a party takes, if a party is against abortion,
that is the party Christians should support.
When we look back at the history of Vichy France, and this
is the only enthusiastically pro-Catholic French regime
after the French Revolution, we must ask the inevitable
question:
What are the dangers of single-issue politics, when that
single issue is abortion?

3. https://youtu.be/C4rH6qhhw70

4. https://youtu.be/Jb_vUFnAf3g

5. The danger of such a narrow view is apparent when we
review the history of the fascist regime of Vichy France
that collaborated with the conquering Nazis. The leaders
of this pro-Catholic Vichy regime were also deeply anti-
Semitic and cooperated with the Germans to persecute
the Jews from the earliest days of the regime. The Vichy
regime was also deeply xenophobic in its immigration
policies. Communism was the mortal enemy of the
Christian faith; many Catholics saw fascists as allies in their
struggles against communism.

6. Deportation
of the Jews
at Marseille,
1943

7. Deportation
of the Jews
at Marseille,
1943

8. In World War I, the invading Germans bogged down short of
Paris, but in World War II, the Nazi blitzkrieg of tanks and Stuka
dive-bombers reached the Pyrenees in six weeks, and nobody in
continental Europe in the beginning of the war could conceive
how England could cross the Channel and conquer France after
she withdrew in disgrace from Dunkirk. The socialist politicians of
France fled abroad, but the pro-Catholic conservatives under the
World War I hero, General Petain, chose to stay behind,
surrendering to the Nazi stormtroopers.
Much of this video has been extracted from our longer video on
how Christians Resisted the Nazis in Vichy France.

9. France, Western Front in World War I

10. Blitzkrieg, Invasion of France

11. https://youtu.be/yYpNrhpmsYw

12. The collaborationist Vichy government made a big show of being
pro-Catholic. The Vichy government fought against moral
decadence, waging a campaign against alcoholism, reestablishing
religious instruction in the schools, church properties that had
been seized in 1905 were now restored. Divorce was now
forbidden in the first three years of marriage.
Vichy France would replace the French Revolution slogan of
“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” with “work, family, and
fatherland.” The French under the Vichy regime would definitely
be far less free and have to work far harder, either as prisoners of
war, or for far less pay.

13. Propaganda poster for the
Vichy Regime's 'Revolution
Nationale' program.

14. Many leaders and officials of Vichy France openly and eagerly
collaborated with their Nazi conquerors in rounding up the Jews
to send them to their deaths in the Nazi concentration camps.
The Milice, the French secret police, had a more sinister
reputation than the Gestapo in their eagerness to arrest, torture,
and murder those who opposed the Nazi Vichy regime, those
who fought with the Resistance, those who secretly harbored
and protected Jews, those who printed flyers and posters
opposing Nazism. Many Vichy leaders were tried and executed
after the end of the war for treason.

15. Young survivors at the camp, liberated
by the Red Army in January 1945

17. Hitler shrewdly allowed the rump Vichy regime
nominal autonomy in the third of France that was
unoccupied by German troops. Since the church
teaches that the political authorities should be
respected, the regime had the support of many
elderly bishops throughout the war. The humiliation
of the German conquest was seen as an opportunity
for moral and religious transformation.

18. VICHY FRANCE
Free Zone, Southern France
The Nazis occupied the
northeast two-thirds of
France, including Paris, but
left the French Vichy regime
to govern the rest France in
relative autonomy.

19. Like the general population, some of the clergy were collaborators, some
aided the Resistance. Resistors were few when the Nazis ruled the
continent, they grew in number after the Allies invaded North Africa, then
Sicily, then Italy, then Normandy. Communists were the most dedicated
resistors, there were also many Catholics and Protestants and pastors and
priests involved in the Resistance.
The Vichy government was friendly to Catholics but was not friendly to
Jews. In 1940, long before the Germans began to apply pressure, the Vichy
government implemented anti-Semitic policies and legislation, although
Jewish veterans and long-established French families were exempted from
some of the harsher policies. Jews were excluded from prestigious
governmental and military jobs, and from teaching and media jobs.

20. Vichy French propaganda posters share themes with KKK:
The cross & chivalrous knights
Vichy Fascists fights Communism, or Bolshevism:

21. The German persecution of the Jews in France increased in 1942,
Jews were required to wear yellow stars, and Himmler ordered
that 100,000 Jews from all of France be deported to the
Auschwitz death camps, foreign born Jews first. The Vichy
officials offered token resistance. This persecution extended to
clergy who assisted the Jews, many French priests and pastors
would be murdered in the Dachau concentration camp, many of
the faithful would become martyrs in their defense of the Jews.
One nun commented as she sent to the death camp in
Ravensbruk, “I am leaving for Heaven.”

22. German persecution of the Jews in France

23. We need to start with the backstories to the fascism of Vichy
France and the persecution of the Jews in World War II. Hitler
did not invent anti-Semitism, the Jews were hated in all of
Europe, including France, and many Catholics despised the Jews.
We can see this most clearly in the Dreyfus affair that deeply
divided French politics for decades.
Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer working in the consulate, was
falsely accused of treason and thrown into the brutal prison on
Devil’s Island in French Guiana. When evidence was revealed
clearly implicating someone else, this evidence was suppressed,
because the Army did not want to be embarrassed, and had no
desire to clear the damaged reputation of a Jew.

24. Dreyfus Affair Timeline
1894: Alfred Dreyfus convicted of
treason, sentenced to Devil’s Island in
French Guiana.
1896: New evidence points to
someone else, but is suppressed,
army does not want to be
embarrassed.
Zola pens J’Accuse, creating an
uproar in the media.
1899: Dreyfus retried, loses.
Pardoned and released.
1906: Dreyfus reinstated in the
military, serves in WWI, retires.
France splits into pro-republican
Dreyfusards, and pro-Catholic, pro-
Army anti-Dreyfusards.

25. You can sense how this case brought out emotions in both
France and all of Europe in these political cartoons.
You can see the anti-Semitic caricatures of Dreyfus, including
one where he is depicted as Jewish monkey, and an English
cartoon with the caption:

26. Puck (to French Justice), So far, so good, Madame! You
have vindicated Dreyfus; but you must punish those
criminals who persecuted him, before your work is done.

27. Emile Zola was also vilified by defending the Jew Dreyfus in
J’Accuse, even though he established his innocence beyond
any shadow of doubt. We see him depicted as the king of the
pigs, and being pursued by an angry mob.

29. The abhorrent treatment of the Jews was what turned much of the clergy and the
faithful against the regime. Several bishops protested against the treatment of the
Jews while they continued to support Petain. Many Catholics and Protestants clergy
and faithful cooperated in actively resisting the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Many
seminaries, convents and churches hid Jews, often with secret cooperation from
bishops and other church administrators, many of the faithful helped Jews escape to
Spain and Switzerland.
In the end the Church gained little from the efforts of the Vichy regime, upon its
liberation France reverted back to a secular state, and the constant battle between
clericalism and anti-clericalism was resumed. The authority of the bishops, many of
whom were so closed tied to Marshal Petain and the Vichy regime, was
undermined, most French bishops were forced into retirement after the war. The
Vichy regime was definitely not pro-life when it came to the Jews.

30. "Selection" of
Jews on the
ramp at
Auschwitz II-
Birkenau in
German-
occupied
Poland, around
May 1944.
Jews were sent
either to work
or to the gas
chamber.

31. Auschitz Crematoria II and III and their chimneys in the background.

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