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September |
Germans invade Poland
Great Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany
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June |
Italy declares war on France; government leaves Paris, arrives several days later in Bordeaux
Germans enter Paris, declared an Open City
Marshal Philippe Pètain forms new government
From London, Charles de Gaulle issues appeal for continued resistance to French population
French and Germans sign an armistice that divides France into two zones. Three fifths of the country is placed under German military occupation, the remainder controlled by a puppet French government set up in Vichy, about 175 miles southeast of Paris.
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Geneviève, 19, is studying at the university in Rennes when the Germans invade France. She accompanies her father, who is mobilized as a reservist, to a military camp in Brittany. There, on June 19 in town square, a priest recounts with great enthusiasm the radio broadcast he heard from London the previous day. In it, a young French general exhorted his compatriots to keep fighting, declaring that victory was possible. At first, the priest cannot remember the general’s name, but then it comes to him: Charles de Gaulle. At this, Geneviève’s grandmother, a tiny woman, tugs on the priest’s robe: “That’s my son!” she exclaims. “That’s my son!”
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Charles De Gaulle
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July |
National Assembly at Vichy votes full powers to Pètain, who becomes head of state the next day, establishing the Vichy regime
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October |
Vichy passes first statute on Jews
Shortly after meeting with Adolf Hitler, Pètain announces he is embarking upon “the path of collaboration”
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November/
December
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First clandestine newspapers appear
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March |
Geneviève meets Jacqueline in Poitiers through mutual acquaintances. Geneviève’s father has recently been released from a prisoner of war camp in Nuremberg where Jacqueline's young husband is interned. Jacqueline seeks out Geneviève for news of the camp. Several days later, Jacqueline learns that Joseph has died there.
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June |
Geneviève works with various resistance groups, eventually joining Defense de la France, a group that publishes a clandestine newspaper under the same name. Geneviève does everything from distributing the newspaper outside metro stations to writing articles about her uncle General de Gaulle. She continues this work through 1943.
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June 22 |
Germany invades Soviet Union, violating the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
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February |
Creation of what is to become the Militia, the French equivalent of the SS (an elite para-military unit of the Nazi party).
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March |
First Jews deported from France to concentration camps
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November 11 |
Germans occupy southern France, the so-called Free Zone
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