VR meaning in Governmental ?
Answer: What is Vichy Regime mean?
Vichy France (French: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944) is the common name of the French State (État français) headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. The regime was authoritarian, xenophobic, antisemitic and traditionalist in nature. Officially independent, it adopted a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany, which occupied its northern and western portions before occupying the remainder of Metropolitan France in November 1942. Though Paris was ostensibly its capital, the Vichy government established itself in the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "Free Zone" (zone libre), where it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies.
The Third French Republic had begun the war in September 1939 on the side of the Allies. On 10 May 1940, it was invaded by Nazi Germany. The Nazis rapidly broke through the Allied lines by bypassing the highly-fortified Maginot Line and invading through Belgium. By mid-June, the military situation of the French was dire, and it was apparent that the battle for Metropolitan France could not be won. The French government began to discuss the possibility of an armistice. Paul Reynaud resigned as prime minister, rather than sign an armistice, and was replaced by Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I. Shortly thereafter, Pétain signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940. On 10 July, the Third Republic was effectively dissolved as Pétain was granted dictatorial powers by the National Assembly.
At Vichy, Pétain established an authoritarian government that reversed many liberal policies and began tight supervision of the economy. Conservative Catholics became prominent, and Paris lost its avant-garde status in European art and culture. The media were tightly controlled and promoted anti-Semitism and, after Operation Barbarossa started in June 1941, anti-Bolshevism. The terms of the armistice presented certain advantages, such as keeping the French Navy and French colonial empire under French control and avoiding full occupation of the country by Germany, which maintained a degree of French independence and neutrality. Despite heavy pressure, the French government at Vichy never joined the Axis powers and even remained formally at war with Germany. Conversely, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime.
The official postwar French position was that Vichy was a German puppet state. Historians have since the 1970s rejected that position by arguing, "Vichy had a political agenda of its own, which it pursued without the slightest pressure from Germany". Germany kept two million French prisoners-of-war and imposed forced labour (service du travail obligatoire) on young French men. French soldiers were kept hostage to ensure that Vichy would reduce its military forces and pay a heavy tribute in gold, food and supplies to Germany. French police were ordered to round up Jews and other "undesirables" such as communists and political refugees, and at least 72,500 Jews were killed as a result.
Most of the French public initially supported the regime, but opinion gradually turned against the French government and the occupying German forces when it became clear that Germany was losing the war, and living conditions in France were becoming increasingly difficult. The French Resistance, working largely in concert with Charles de Gaulle's movement outside the country, increased in strength over the course of the occupation. After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and the liberation of France later that year, the Free French Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) was installed as the new national government, led by de Gaulle.
The last of the Vichy exiles were captured in the Sigmaringen enclave in April 1945. Pétain was put on trial for treason by the new Provisional Government, and sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life imprisonment by de Gaulle. Only four senior Vichy officials were tried for crimes against humanity although many others had participated in the deportation of Jews for internment in Nazi concentration camps, abuses of prisoners and severe acts against members of the Resistance.
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