Sigmaringen Schloss BW 2015-04-28 17-37-14

The Sigmaringen enclave was a temporary government-in-exile formed by remnants of France's Nazi-collaborating Vichy regime during the final stages of World War II. Established in the requisitioned Sigmaringen Castle in southwestern Germany, it was created after the German military evacuated key Vichy officials, including Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

and other collaborators, to avoid capture by advancing Allied forces. Though coerced into relocation, Pétain and ex-Prime Minister Pierre Laval refused to cooperate, leaving leadership to figures like

Fernand de Brinon Fernand de Brinon, Marquis de Brinon (; 26 August 1885 – 15 April 1947) was a French lawyer and journalist who was one of the architects of French collaboration with the Nazism, Nazis during World War II. He claimed to have had five private tal ...

and Marcel Déat, who sought to maintain a semblance of legitimacy. Designated as an extraterritorial French

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

by Nazi Germany, the commission hosted Axis embassies and operated propaganda outlets but struggled with internal dysfunction and harsh living conditions for its 6,000 residents, including soldiers, forced laborers, and prominent collaborationist writers like Louis-Ferdinand Céline. The enclave's existence ended with the Allied capture of Sigmaringen in April 1945, marking the collapse of the Vichy regime's final remnants. The enclave remains a controversial symbol of wartime collaboration and has been the subject of historical analysis and cultural depictions.

History

Background

Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940 during the early part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The Armistice of 22 June 1940 ended hostilities, dividing France into two zones: an Occupied zone in the north and west, and a nominally "free zone" ('' Zone libre'') in the south and east. Known officially as the " French State", the became known as the " Vichy regime" for the location of its nominal capital. The regime was headed by Marshal

, who was given full powers to control the regime. In November 1942, the was also occupied by the Germans, in response to the landing of the Allies in North Africa. Vichy lost its military force, but continued to exercise jurisdiction over most of

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

until the gradual collapse of the Vichy regime following the Allied invasion in June 1944 and the ongoing liberation of France.

Transition

On 17 August 1944, Vichy's head of government and minister of foreign affairs Pierre Laval held the last government council with five of his government ministers. With permission from the Germans, he attempted to call back the prior

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

with the goal of giving it power and thus impeding the communists and de Gaulle. So he obtained the agreement of German ambassador Otto Abetz to bring Édouard Herriot, (President of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

) back to Paris. But ultra- collaborationists Marcel Déat and

protested to the Germans, who changed their minds and took Laval to Belfort along with the remains of his government, "to assure its legitimate security", and arrested Herriot. Also on 17 August, Cecil von Renthe-Fink, "special diplomatic delegate of the Führer to the French Head of State", asked Pétain to allow himself to be transferred to the northern zone. Pétain refused and asked for a written formulation of this request. Von Renthe-Fink renewed his request twice on the 18th, then returned on the 19th, at , accompanied by General Alexander Neubronn von Eisenberg, who told him that he had "formal orders from Berlin". The written text is submitted to Pétain: "The Reich Government instructs that the transfer of the Head of State be carried out, even against his will". Faced with the Marshal's continued refusal, the Germans threatened to bring in the Wehrmacht to bomb Vichy. After having requested the Swiss ambassador to bear witness to the Germans' blackmail, Pétain submitted. When Renthe-Fink entered the Marshal's office at the Hôtel du Parc with General von Neubronn "at 7:30 p.m.", the Head of State was supervising the packing up of his suitcases and papers. The next day, 20 August 1944, Pétain was taken against his will by the German army to Belfort and then, on 8 September to Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, where dignitaries of his regime had taken refuge.

Formation

Hitler requisitioned the Sigmaringen Castle belonging to the Hohenzollerns in the town of Sigmaringen in Swabia, southwestern Germany. This was then occupied and used by the Vichy government-in-exile from September 1944 to April 1945. Vichy head of state Marshal

was brought there against his will, and refused to cooperate, and ex-Prime Minister Pierre Laval also refused. Despite the efforts of the collaborationists and the Germans, Pétain never recognized the Sigmaringen Commission. The Germans, wanting to present a facade of legality, enlisted other Vichy officials such as

as president, along with Joseph Darnand, Jean Luchaire, Eugène Bridoux, and Marcel Déat. On 7 September 1944, fleeing the advance of Allied troops into France, while Germany was in flames and the Vichy regime ceased to exist, a thousand French collaborators (including a hundred officials of the Vichy regime, a few hundred members of the '' Milice'', collaborationist party militants, and the editorial staff of the newspaper '' Je suis partout'') but also waiting-game opportunists also went into exile in Sigmaringen. Militia leaders sought to recruit new members to swell the ranks of the '' Franc-Garde'' by finding sympathizers, especially in the enforced labor camps of prisoners in Germany. Their goal was to promote the ideal of a true National Revolution by actively preparing for an underground struggle by creating Maquis groups. was designed to parachute in political agitators, who, when the time came, would sow panic and prepare future agents who would be able to infiltrate French society more easily than German agents could.

Legal status

The Castle received official designation from Germany as extraterritorialized to France and became a French enclave legally, complete with flag-raising. It was a matter of some importance to attempt to gain legal recognition for the government in exile from other countries, however at Sigmaringen, there were only the embassies of Germany and of Japan and an Italian consulate which maintained a presence. The governmental commission was thus a legally French enclave from September 1944 through April 1945.

Commission

The offices used the official title ''French Delegation'' () or the French Government Commission for the Defense of National Interests. The commission had its own radio station (Radio-patrie, Ici la France) and official press (, '' Le Petit Parisien''), and hosted the embassies of the

Axis powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

: Germany, Italy and Japan. The population of the enclave was about 6,000, including known collaborationist journalists, the writers Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Lucien Rebatet, the actor Robert Le Vigan, and their families, as well as 500 soldiers, 700 French SS, prisoners of war and French civilian forced laborers.

Daily life

Pétain and his ministers, although "on strike", were lodged in the requisitioned Sigmaringen castle. Pétain chose a suite that was not too big, as it was less cold. The rest of the enclave was lodged in schools and gymnasiums converted to dormitories, in scarce rooms in private residences or in hotels such as the or the which were mostly reserved for more distinguished guests, notably the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline, who wrote about the experience in his 1957 book '' Castle to Castle''. Céline describes at length the Brasserie where the French gathered to follow the news of the approaching Allied armies and to talk about the latest rumors about the imminent, albeit improbable, German victory in the war. New arrivals lived with difficulty in the cramped dwellings of the city under the rumblings of American bombs in the summer, but it was worse during the intensely cold winter that reached in December 1944: Having left France in a panic ahead of advancing Allied forces, they arrived exclusively with summer clothing, and suffered from the cold. Inadequate housing, insufficient food, promiscuity among the paramilitaries, and lack of hygiene facilitated the spread of numerous illnesses, including flu and

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, and a high mortality rate among children; ailments that were treated as best they could by the only two French doctors, Doctor Destouches (Céline's real-life surname) and Bernard Ménétrel.

Dissolution

On 21 April 1945 General de Lattre ordered his forces to take Sigmaringen. The end came within days. By the 26th, Pétain was captured after voluntarily returning to France, and Laval had fled to Spain. Brinon, Luchaire, and Darnand were captured, tried, and executed by 1947. Other members escaped to Italy or Spain.

Exiles

Exiles included the unwilling Pétain and Laval, the Commission members, as well as several thousand other collaborators or those sympathetic to the Nazis. Some prominent residents of the enclave include: * Abel Bonnard * Maud de Belleroche * Jean Bichelonne * Victor Barthélemy * Louis-Ferdinand Céline * Victor Debeney * Lucette Destouches * Roland Gaucher * Jacques Bouly de Lesdain * Robert Le Vigan * Corinne Luchaire * Bernard Ménétrel *

Georges Oltramare Georges Oltramare (17 April 1896 – 16 August 1960) was a Swiss writer, journalist, actor, nationalist politician and fascist militant, who became involved in Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, collaboration in German military ad ...

* Lucien Rebatet * Simon Sabiani

Filmography

Several documentaries or fictionalized documentaries have been released about the Sigmaringen enclave. These include: * igmaringen, the ultimate betrayal documentary by Rachel Kahn and , 1996, 56 min. (VHS).. * ''The darkness – terminus Sigmaringen'' 'Die Finsternis'', Germany, 2005 documentary by Thomas Tielsch, after the novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, K-Films, 2006, 82 min. (DVD). * '' Sigmaringen, the last refuge'' documentary-fiction by Serge Moati, Arte France, 2015, 78 min.

References

;Notes ;Footnotes

Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control 1944 in France 1944 in Germany 1945 in Germany Former governments in exile French collaboration during World War II French people of World War II Vichy France World War II political leaders Enclaves and exclaves Sigmaringen (district)