French State

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Flag of the French State.

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Poster for the National Revolution of the French State, with Marshal Pétain.

The French State (French: État Français) was the new proclaimed name for France in succession to the discredited French Third Republic, which was dissolved after the National Assembly voted (569 votes to 80) to give full plenary powers to the Cabinet under the authority and signature of the Premier, Marshal Philippe Pétain, on 10 July 1940. (Plenary powers were regularly voted into the hands of France's Premiers.) The old French Revolutionary slogan "Liberty, equality, fraternity" was replaced with "Work, family, fatherland".

I have not met a single Frenchman who could say a good word for the pre-war [Third Republic] government. ~ Admiral William D. Leahy, USA Ambassador to France, writing from Vichy to President Roosevelt.

It has been said that the "Pétainists" were above all the people of the anti-parliamentary Right - members of the Right-wing parties, members of the Action Francaise, of the Croix de Feu and the other Leagues which had been so active in 1934-5. The Légion of ex-servicemen was Petainist as was the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. In addition there was very widespread pro-Petain sentiment across the country.

Most of the cabinets in both 1939 and 1940 had contained constant political figures of the pre-war period including Edouard Daladier, Pierre Laval, Camille Chautemps, Paul-Etienne Flandin, Fernand de Brinon, Paul Reynaud, et al.

Evacuation and armistice

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France, military demarcations 1940–1944

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Defeated French soldiers in May 1940

Following the approach of the German armies the elected French Government had evacuated Paris (which fell on 14 June 1940) and fled to Tours, then Bordeaux, where, following the Battle of France, there was a Cabinet crisis, the majority of whom accepted the military reports that France was defeated and wanted to ask Germany for an armistice to halt the killing. The Premier, Paul Reynard, and a minority of his Cabinet, did not agree and resigned, Reynard recommending to France's President, Albert Le Brun, that he invite Marshall Philippe Pétain to form a new Cabinet. On June 17 President Lebrun confirmed Pétain as the new Premier, who then reshuffled his Cabinet. This, the legal Government of France, still at Bordeaux, subsequently requested an immediate armistice with the Germany, which was agreed and signed on 22 June 1940, at which time France left the war and became neutral.

The French government, on 29 June 1940, evacuated Bordeaux for Clermont-Ferrand, but upon arrival it was found to be inadequate for the government's needs, and they then moved on the next day, at Paul Baudouin's suggestion, to the famous spa town of Vichy. As a result of this last move Allied propaganda and subsequent "victors' history" always refer, incorrectly, to this French government (until 1944) as the Vichy government, and to Vichy France. It remained, however, the continuing legal government of France which had merely relocated due to enemy action. It continued with the civil administration for all of France but was restricted militarily to the unoccupied zone and the empire. The English and later, Allied, propaganda smears of Vichy France, Vichy Government or even 'the new government' has, like mud, stuck and become commonplace. It is nevertheless false. The Government which had relocated to Vichy represented, in the eyes of practically all government officials, the government and, importantly, the continuity of the French State.

Chronology of events

Between 1918 and 1940 France had significant political instability and constantly changing governments (or Cabinets), 35 in all, even several in a single year. The Cabinet of former President Gaston Doumergue (of "The Republic is rotten to the core" fame) of only 9 months, the so-called 'National Government', in which Marshal of France Philippe Pétain served as Minister of War, had discussed the necessity of revising the Constitution. On 6 February 1934 there had been major riots against the government in central Paris, resulting in the Police firing on the crowds with many dead and wounded. As a result, the Right-wing newspaper Gringoire saw its circulation between 1934 and 1939 soar to 700,000. On 2 May 1935 the French Government signed the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance, considered an outrage by The Right, and which led to the German re-militarization of the Rhineland. There were then widespread calls for Pétain to be made Premier. In the 1936 General Election Pétain had urged the French electorate to vote against the so-called Popular Front. Meanwhile the government had signed, on September 5th at Rambouillet, a Franco-Polish Protocol which reaffirmed the alliance between the two countries, defined the terms of collaboration of their military staffs, and settled France's financial contribution towards the defensive organization of Poland

In February 1939 Premier Édouard Daladier appointed Pétain French Ambassador to Spain. During his term in Madrid Pétain showed embassy Counsellor Gazel lists of those he thought should be in the French cabinet demonstrating his continuing interests in the politics of France. These included Laval, and after war was declared on 3 September 1939, Pétain and Laval were again in contact. About the same time Daladier summoned Pétain to Paris and asked him to re-enter the government. The Marshal refused, and returned to Spain.

In March 1939 Premier Daladier (who was also Minister for War) had asked Parliament for unlimited plenary powers. Both the Chamber of Deputies (by a small majority) and the Senate gave way. His first decree was to ban the Communist Party and arrest their leaders, throwing them into jail. The same month England's Prime Minister Chamberlain issued a new guarantee to Poland not only in the name of Britain but also in the name of France; the French government said nothing. It had allowed Chamberlain to commit the whole French nation; but neither Premier Daladier or Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet made a single public utterance on the subject.

Britain had bullied France into declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939 to support Poland to whom they could, in reality, offer no assistance. By the Treaty of Locarno France had guaranteed that it would never ever cross the Franco-German border. Poland was wiped out in three weeks in September. There had been bad miscalculations all round. The Chamber voted the declaration of war on Germany only by implication: it was when it agreed unanimously to the opening of military credits amounting to 500 million francs. Yet Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, on September 2nd, had made an attempt to stop the British Government from declaring war the next day. He had been in constant communication with Count Ciano, and the Italian Government were proposing an arbitration conference for September 5th. Bonnet was prepared to attend the conference without demanding a German withdrawal from Polish territory. Following the British formal declaration of war the next day Premier Daladier removed Bonnet from the Foreign Office (he remained, however, as Minister of Justice). Outside the Cabinet the opposition to the war was more outspoken. After the conquest of Poland, Flandin said to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber: "Is it really worth going on with this?"

There now occurred the so-called 'phoney war', and in February 1940 French embassy counsellor Lemarle told Pétain, still Ambassador in Spain, that he had found in Paris "a widespread defeatist mood". For ten years France had lived in a state of false security behind the "impregnable" Maginot line and other myths such as that of the 'invincible French army'. After the Cabinet's failure to help Finland following its invasion by the Soviet Union Daladier resigned as Premier (Bonnet also left the Cabinet). He was replaced as Premier by 'England's man', Paul Reynaud. On March 27th, just four days after his investiture, Reynard went to London for a meeting of the Supreme War Council. With him were General Gamelin and Admiral Darlan. It was at this meeting that Reynard, with no Cabinet approval, proposed that there should be no separate armistices or peace without the approval of either Britain or France. Churchill's personal envoy to France, General Spears, thought this proposal was essential: "It was after all to our advantage to bind the French, as they had been uncertain starters and their hearts were certainly not in the war." "During the first weeks of its existence, the position of the Reynaud Government was extremely shaky". So unpopular were the new Cabinet that socialist deputy Marcel Déat announced he was going to interpellate the Government and that the chances of overthrowing it were considerable.

On 10 May 1940, the 'phoney war' ended and the Germans finally invaded. Efforts through diplomatic channels to persuade France to leave the war having failed. Marshall Petain (in Madrid) stated that "France's greatest mistake had been to enter the war." By May 15th things were going badly and Reynaud said "Oh, if only the Marshall were here!" He then recalled Marshal Pétain to Paris as "the last chance". Louis Marin and Jean Ybarnégaray now entered the Cabinet. At 10 a.m. on May 16th General Héring, Military Governor of Paris, advised that the entire government, including the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, should be evacuated from Paris. Transference of the government to Tours was ordered and preparations commenced. General Maxime Weygand, who was in Beirut, was ordered to return to France immediately. Meanwhile, on the same day, USA President Roosevelt told the USA Congress that "he would devote all his energies to warding off being dragged into the armed conflict in Europe".

On May 18th Reynard asked Marshal Pétain to join the government as Deputy Premier. The Marshal agreed. Reynard then also reshuffled his Cabinet: he took over National Defence from Daladier who became Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Jewish Georges Mandel became Minister of the Interior, César Campinchi, Minister of Marine. On the same day Churchill sent a long confidential note to the Lord President asking him to examine 'the consequences and problems which would arise if it were necessary to withdraw the British Expeditionary Force from France.....' The following day the French Cabinet decreed General Weygand should replace General Gamelin as Commander-in-Chief. Weygand told Reynard "I cannot guarantee success". On May 23rd the R.A.F evacuated its final base in France, the airfield at Merville; the next day began the B.E.F retreat to the ports. In a conversation with Paul Baudouin, Premier Reynard asked: "If Germany were to make reasonable peace proposals, would public opinion allow us to reject them?" On the 25th Campinchi agreed with other Cabinet members, including Weygand, that peace talks must be started in the near future. On May 26th it was announced that the King of Belgium would prefer to remain in his country and share his people's trials than to seek sanctuary in London. He was rudely and outrageously attacked in a public broadcast by Paul Reynard.

On May 30th the evacuation from Dunkirk to England was in full swing, including French soldiers whom Reynard told England's General Spears "must be put straight into boats and returned to France". On May 31st at a Supreme War Council meeting in Paris the British delegation included Churchill. The evacuation from Norway was announced. Reynard again demanded that the 16,000 French troops must be returned urgently to France as well as the 15,000 evacuated, at this point, from Dunkirk. More would be evacuated today. Churchill then told Reynard that he "was not authorized by his government to promise [France]] further support of the Royal Air Force." It was felt nation-wide that "Britain had deserted France".

On June 5th Paul Reynard informed Marshal Pétain that he had decided to reshuffle (for the second time in two months) his Cabinet, and offered him the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Marshal declined saying he was not qualified for the job. The reshuffle took place the next day, in Paris, with Daladier and de Monzie dismissed because they were too much in favour of peace talks with Italy. Here is the new Cabinet, ratified by President Albert Lebrun.:

• Premier, Minister for Foreign Affairs & National Defence: Paul Reynard.
• Deputy Premier and Minister of State: Marshal Philippe Pétain.
• Ministers of State: Camille Chautemps; Jean Ybarnegaray (to Sept 6th); & Louis Marin (only to June 16th).
• Interior: Georges Mandel (only to June 16th).
• Finance: Yves Bouthillier (until 1942).
• Munitions: Raoul Dautry.
• Air: Laurent-Eynac.
• Navy: César Campinchi (only to June 16th).
• Justice: Albert Sérol.
• Information: Jean Prouvost.
• National Education: Yvon Delbos (a former Foreign Minister).
• Labour: Charles Pomaret.
• Communications: Jules Jullien.
• Public Works & Transport: Ludovic-Oscar Frossard.
• Health: Georges Pernot.
• Pensions: Albert Riviere.
• Food: Henri Queuille.
• Colonies: Louis Rollin.
• Commerce & Industry: Albert Chichery.
• Blockade: Georges Monnet.
• Under-Secretary of State for War: Charles de Gaulle.

Paul Reynard had now become delusional about the serious state of affairs and entertained fantasies about the entire government, including the Chamber and the Senate, decamping to Africa (with 900,000 troops), or forming a ("indefencible") 'redoubt' in Brittany, a "pipe-dream" with the obvious intention that the government could then, if necessary, flee to England. The USA told Reynard that they were not going to join the war and sent their best wishes. Britain was slowly pulling out (by June 16th this was complete.). The French army was shattered and torn to pieces and its commanders were urging the government to sue for an honourable armistice. On June 15th Édouard Herriot, Leader of the Chambers announced that there was nothing to be gained at this point in time by calling a meeting of the Chamber. Churchill had told Reynard, at Tours, that he 'understood the painful need to seek an armistice'. General Weygand told Reynard that the government could not leave France. There were thirteen members of the Government who wanted to ask for an armistice and only six who did not. At 11 a.m. on June 16th the Cabinet met. They heard firstly from the leaders of the Chamber and the Senate.

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New French Cabinet on 16 June 1940. Marshal Pétain in centre (dark suit). General Weygand is on his left.

President Lebrun then took the Chair. Petain announced he wished to resign from the government due to its indecisions and the catastrophic war he had always opposed. This was refused by the President. The Cabinet broke off and resumed at 5.15 p.m. They retired again at 7.30 p.m. and resumed at 10 p.m. Reynaud having suddenly grasped that most of the government were against him and the way he had handled the crisis, formally announced his resignation, after just two and a half months in office. President Lebrun said later it was "a clear enough indication of the wishes of the majority". (One of the last actions of this Cabinet was to despatch France's gold reserves to Dakar on two warships.) Reynard recommended to President Lebrun that Marshal Pétain be invited to form a new Cabinet and left the meeting followed by Mandel, Marin, Campinchi (see above) and Rio.

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Marshal Pétain and Pierre Laval circa 1942.

President Lebrun immediately "appealed to Marshal Pétain" to form a new Cabinet, which he did that night, "displaying still further proof of his devotion to our country". Here is his first Cabinet:

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Book on the United States Army Air Force bombings of neutral France.

Ministers:

• Premier: Marshal Philippe Pétain.
• Deputy Premier: Camille Chautemps
• Foreign Affairs: Paul Baudouin.
• National Defence: General Maxime Weygand,
• War: Infantry-General Colson.
• Air: General Maurice Pujo.
• Marine: Admiral François Darlan.
• Justice: Charles Frémicourt.
• Interior: Charles Pomaret (only to June 26)
• Finance & Commerce: Yves Bouthillier.
• Colonies: Albert Riviere.
• National Education: Albert Rivaud.
• Public Works: Ludovic-Oscar Frossard.
• Agriculture & Food: Albert Chichery
• Labour: M. Février.
• Ex-servicemen & Families: Jean Ybarnegaray.
• Under-Secretary of State to the Presidency of the Council: Raphael Alibert.
• Under-Secretary of State for Refugees: Robert Schuman.
• Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: François Charles-Roux.

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Poster referring to the RAF bombing of Rouen in April 1944.

General Maxime Weygand remained Army Commander-in-Chief. He issued an arrest warrant for General de Gaulle, who was accused of treasonous activities and acting against the French government. De Gaulle now secretly arranged with the British Ambassador Jackson and General Spears to help him flee to England. The Cabinet agreed to use Spain as their mediator with Germany, and at 1 a.m. (17th) the Marshal sent for Senor de Lequerica, the Spanish Ambassador. A few moments later Paul Baudouin told Biddle, the USA ambassador, that "the carnage had to stop".

Treachery now began: Colonel Jacquin, head of the French Purchasing Commission in the USA, of his own volition, now sold all existing French contracts to the British, without the consent of the French Government. These included contracts with armament manufacturers worth billions of Francs. Edward Stettinius, chairman of the USA's War Resources Board, confirmed that the French Commission "had disposed of all the war assets of France in the USA by 3.30 a.m. on June 17th". Jacquin also assured the American that the French fleet would never be handed over to Germany. Baudouin also formally told the British Ambassador, Sir Ronald Campbell, the same thing, and that France was to seek an armistice.

Werth, the great expert on French politics, wrote:

had a referendum been taken, say, on June 15, on whether France should try to negotiate an armistice, there is no doubt that the vast majority would have said yes.

Meanwhile Allied treachery was busy. The Marshal had barely finished his first broadcast to the nation when the USA President Roosevelt ordered the [illegal] freezing of all French property in the United States. He then had a message sent to Ambassador Mr Drexel Biddle instructing him to speak to Admiral Darlan ordering him to prevent the French fleet' from falling into 'enemy' hands. Yet the arrogant USA was still neutral! France would soon be also. The French Cabinet agreed that their fleet must not be sent to British harbours. On June 18th the government announced that "no warship must fall into enemy hands intact. The rallying point for the navy and aircraft is French North Africa". These decisions were wired to Corbin, the French Ambassador in London, to be presented to the British Government.

Meanwhile de Gaulle, now a British puppet, was making appeals via the BBC against the French Government and urging continued resistance. The British Consuls in the French Empire called upon the French Colonial administrators urging them to break away from the Government of France presently at Bordeaux, even offering them "financial advantages"! They universally refused. The French Cabinet unanimously declared these advances as intolerable, and blamed de Gaulle. He was officially struck off the French Army List on June 23rd.

At 1.30 p.m. on June 21st the liner Massilia sailed from Le Verdon to Casablanca. After all the Chamber & Senate infighting about decamping to French North Africa, of the two-hundred-odd members of Parliament in Bordeaux, she was carrying only 18 deputies and a single senator. Meanwhile, the Armistice was being discussed by the French and German delegations. The Armistice was signed on June 22nd. Marshall Pétain broadcasted to the nation:

The Terms of the armistice are hard; but at least honour has been saved. No-one will use our planes and our Navy.....The Government remains free; and France will [continue to] be administered by Frenchmen only. Now a new order begins.

The French listened to his words with deep emotion. All over the country, in the towns and on the roads, the cry went up: 'It's over! It's over! The nightmare is over!' The news swept through France. Crowds of refugees congregated round public buildings to cheer the Marshal. People stood on their doorsteps, weeping, while a flood of fervour and gratitude surged out to the illustrious old man who had, by assuming power, assumed the grief of the entire nation.

At 11 a.m. that day Churchill broadcast a fierce attack on the French Government. It contained major factual inaccuracies and lies. "London was now prepared to use any possible means to discredit the French Government". That was followed at 6 p.m. by another similar broadcast by de Gaulle. Writing in his book Journal de la France, Alfred Fabre-Luce, sneers at de Gaulle:

telling us through the English microphone that he was the 'leader of all the Free French' and inviting his countrymen to join in an 'international brigade', now in England's service.

Jean Monnet, head of the economic delegation to Britain, wrote to de Gaulle:

I consider that it would be a great mistake to form an organization in Britain that might be viewed in France as an authority set up abroad under the protection of Britain.......an attempt at resuscitation cannot at present come from London. It would strike the French people...as a movement protected by Britain, inspired by her own interests and, in consequence, doomed to a failure that would make subsequent efforts at recovery more difficult....

On this day, June 22nd, the British Government as well as those of Canada and South Africa broke off diplomatic relations with the Government of France, and their Ambassadors and embassies staff left France. The following day a most honourable armistice was signed with Italy. Marshal Pétain now decided to bring Pierre Laval and Adrien Marquet into the government as Ministers of State.

A cease-fire of all hostilities between France and Germany and Italy took place on June 24th at 12.35 a.m. on all fronts.

Four French battleships and the same number of destroyers were presently at Alexandria, Egypt, and were ordered to sail immediately ("swiftly") for Beirut. However, British Admiral Cunningham advised French Admiral Godfroy that he was [illegally] detaining the French ships in Alexandria. Admiral Darlan telegraphed Admiral Godfroy that the British action was "inadmissible from any point of view" and that they were making a diplomatic protest in London. On June 30th The German armistice commission gave their explicit consent that the French fleet could be stationed outside the German occupation zone.

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Map of the western Allies invasion plan of France.; The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. More than 150,000 troops from England, Canada and the United States landed on D-Day. Casualties from the three countries during the landing numbered 10,300. By 30 June 1944, over 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed on the five beaches of the Normandy shores.

It will be seen from the chronology of events above that, like the Kings of Belgium & Denmark, the overwhelming majority of the French government were unwilling to leave France and abandon their people to their fate. The continuing legal government of France remained in the homeland.

Occupation issues

Civil administration

The government of the French State continued their responsibility for civil administration throughout all France and the empire until the second half of 1944 when they were invaded.

After September 1940 the Germans relaxed the frontier (dividing the occupied and non-occupied zones) regulations and a high proportion of the seven million refugees from Belgium and the occupied zone returned home.

Initially, about half of France was not militarily occupied by Germany or Italy. However, following the illegal (aggression against a neutral country) Western Allied invasions in French North Africa in November 1942, the unoccupied zone was also militarily occupied by Germany and Italy to protect the Mediterranean coastline from further Allied aggression, the much-reduced Home French Army being unable to do this on its own. The Government nevertheless continued with the civil administration etc.

Resistance

There was a scattered 'resistance' movement, with a large Communist and Jewish influence, to some degree co-ordinated with the renegade Charles de Gaulle's small movement which was based in England. Admiral Darlan stated that the Resistance was "essentially communist". Werth writes:

It may be said, generally, all that was Right and Centre was solidly behind the French State; and that the 'Resistance', in so far as it was supported by any parties at all, derived its main support from elements which were chiefly on The Left. and to this day, the competition [for due credit] between the Communist and non-Communist elements in the Resistance has not abated.

De Gaulle, who had stated at Algiers on 23 June 1943: "Not only do I wish for, but insist upon the collusion with Communists", was particularly attacked by Admiral Darlan for supporting and using France's Communists in the so-called 'resistance':

Before the Communists joined the active anti-German resistance in France, the Gaullist 'party' lacked real dynamic vigour and was merely engaging in wishful thinking. Now, thanks to the Communists, who constitute by far the most highly organised Party, and the best-armed Party, and counting among their members real experts in the art of underground propaganda, sabotage, guerilla warfare and outright murder, the anti-German movement has acquired the dynamic vigour which it lacked. Instead of appearing to be vulgar terrorists (which they are) they have now acquired, through their association with the 'Free French', a patriotic halo. But de Gaulle is not using them; it is they who are using de Gaulle.

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Marshal Pétain's defence counsel speaks during the show trial in July 1945.

Last visit to Paris

As late as 28 April 1944 Marshal Pétain re-visited Paris for a special funeral and memorial service in Notré Dame Cathedral for civilian victims of RAF bombing raids on Paris suburbs. He was rapturously received by hundreds of thousands of Parisians and addressed a vast cheering crowd from the balcony of the Town Hall (Hotel de Ville); he then visited a hospital where wounded victims were being treated.

The End

Following the illegal, under international law, Allied Normandy landings in June 1944 and the subsequent invasion and occupation of France by the end of that year, the French Cabinet at Vichy were escorted into safety in Germany. The Allies subsequently installed a very Left-wing 'Provisional Government', oddly with de Gaulle as titular and illegal Head of State.

Following the end of World War II the legal French government and its supporters were subject to appalling show trials (notably those of Laval and Pétain), and a number were quickly executed (i.e: Pierre Laval) for alleged 'treason', in a series of Stalinist-type "purges". Thousands of alleged 'collaborators' were summarily executed by local Communists and the so-called 'Resistance' (often indistinguishable from each other) in illegal vigilante actions. The highest estimates state more than 100,000 were murdered.

Writers

A great many French journalists, writers and authors were active in the 1930-45 period who gave idealistic, theoretical and rhetorical support to the French State and its ideas. They included Charles Maurras, Henri de Man, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Bertrand de Jouvenel, André Weil-Curiel, Jacques Chabannes, Pierre Brossolette and Robert Brasillach. Numerous national newspapers supported the French State government, particularly Gringoire with its vast readership.

See also

• Causes of World War II
• National Socialist Germany and partisans/resistance movements: France
• Charles Maurras
• Pierre Laval
• Foreign military volunteers and National Socialist Germany
• Klaus Barbie
• Léon Blum
• National Socialist Germany and forced labor
• Night and Fog
• Western front

Sources

• Venner, Dominique, History of the Collaboration (Histoire de la Collaboration), Éditions Pigmalion, Paris, 2000.

External links

• Bitter Retrospective after Fifty Years, Open Letter from a Young Frenchman to a Former French Resistance Fighter
• From the Editor
• Jews as Underground Fighters in the Second World War
• Paris in the Third Reich
• The Papon Trial
• Was General de Gaulle a “Revisionist”?
• “What Soldiers Do”
• Paris through a Nazi's lens: Propaganda pictures of Occupied France taken by photographer ordered to prove city was thriving under German rule