Vichy government

Cultural  

1. The government of France after Germany defeated and occupied it at the beginning of World War II (see fall of France); Vichy, the capital, is a small city in central France. The Vichy government was essentially a puppet of the Germans.

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Example Sentences

“Changing a name does not change the roots,” she said, adding when asked, “yes, also an inheritor of Petain,” referring to Marshall Philippe Petain, who headed the collaborationist Vichy government in WWII.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 9, 2023

Among them were suspected collaborators; German soldiers masquerading as French civilians; officials of France’s pro-Nazi Vichy government; and ordinary citizens.

From New York Times • Sep. 17, 2022

Zemmour, who visits London on Friday, has long championed a version of World War Two history that minimises the guilt of Philippe Pétain, the head of the Vichy government, in the Jewish deportations.

From BBC • Nov. 18, 2021

There, the Vichy government rapidly set up a distinctly French fascist state, complete with concentration camps, anti-Semitic laws, and a state of war with Britain.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

By August 1941, she had established a headquarters in southern France and was passing along intelligence about the Vichy government and the underground resistance movement to her British spymasters.

From Washington Post • Dec. 29, 2017