German Forces

Milice chief Joseph Darnand.

Decorated in both World Wars, an extreme Right-wing journalist and agitator in between, Darnand opted to support the Vichy régime in a forceful way. He was a notable figure in the initial Vichy paramilitary/terrorist organization the Légion Francais des Combattants, and subsequently founded its successor organization, the Service d'Ordre Légionnaire, which he finally transformed into the Milice in 1943. Pierre Laval was nominal head of the SOL and the Milice, but Darnand actually called the shots. Darnand was, in some ways, an example of the somewhat paradoxical position taken by many members of the French Far Right before and during WW2. He was quasi-Monarchist and anti-Semitic, and this was reflected in the murderous activities of the SOL/Milice. At the same time, he was a solid, old-fashioned French patriot and strongly anti-German. Unusually for a Vichy official holding this position, he went so far as to offer to defect to the French Resistance on a number of occasions prior to 1943. Having been persistently rebuffed (hardly surprising) he adopted the changed circumstances of 1943, becoming a solid (if somewhat anomalous) supporter of Vichy's German "supporters". He ended up as an SS officer, and a minister in Petain's "Government-in-Exile" in Germany in 1944 -'45 following the Liberation of southern France. He fled to Italy at the end of the war, but was captured by the British and handed over to the Free French authorities. They tried him for treason and numerous other crimes. Joseph Darnand was convicted, and the sentence of death was executed by firing squad at the Fort de Chatillon on 10 October, 1945.