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

In July 1940, after the Vichy government in France signed an armistice with Nazi Germany, thousands of refugees fled to Marseilles to seek asylum in the United States or elsewhere.

From Washington Post • Apr. 27, 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

He has, for instance, drawn ire for falsely stating that Marshall Philippe Petain, who headed France’s collaborationist World War II Vichy government, saved Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 16, 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

The Vichy government had collaborated with the Nazis.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012