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Courses / Modules / HIST3036 France under the Nazis, 1940-1944 (Part 1)

France under the Nazis, 1940-1944 (Part 1)

When you'll study it
Semester 1
CATS points
30
ECTS points
15
Level
Level 6
Module lead
Joan Tumblety
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

In 1940 France experienced the worst military defeat in its history. On this module you will explore the causes and consequences of a defeat that caused the collapse of French democratic rule and direct military occupation by the Germans until 1944. You will learn about how the French experienced and came to understand the defeat, and the bruising compromises with the German occupiers that followed. We focus especially on the functioning and ideological underpinning of the authoritarian Vichy regime (1940-1944), which enjoyed semi-autonomous status over the period; the collaboration with the Nazis of both political elites and ordinary men and women; and the complicity of the Vichy regime in the deportation of 80 000 Jews to Auschwitz. You will encounter the military, diplomatic, political, social and cultural dimensions of this complex subject. Through an engagement with primary sources in translation, we consider how the defeat was understood by contemporaries, how the Vichy regime sought to retain its sovereignty in the face of crushing German Occupation, and the daily life of civilians.