page_title: Milice
section_title: Membership
hierarchical_section_title: Milice / Membership
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Note: This description has been identified as biased or incorrect: Original Nazi propaganda description. Der rote Maquis in Frankreich Bei einer Aktion gegen die Terroristen in Frankreich wurden zahlreiche Gefangene eingebracht. Unter ihnen befinden sich viele verbrecherische Naturen, die Morde, Raubüberfälle, Eisenbahnattentate usw. auf dem Gewissen haben. Die werden bewacht von Angehörigen der franz. Miliz, die Schulter an Schulter mit deutschen Soldaten gegen den Bolschewismus kämpfen. Foto: Kriegsberichter Koll
context_page_description: The Milice française, generally called la Milice, was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy regime to help fight against the French Resistance during World War II. The Milice's formal head was Prime Minister Pierre Laval, although its Chief of operations and de facto leader was Secretary General Joseph Darnand. It participated in summary executions and assassinations, helping to round up Jews and résistants in France for deportation. It was the successor to Joseph Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire militia. The Milice was the Vichy regime's most extreme manifestation of fascism. Ultimately, Darnand envisaged the Milice as a fascist single party political movement for the French state.
  The Milice frequently used torture to extract information or confessions from those whom they interrogated. The French Resistance considered the Milice more dangerous than the Gestapo and SS because they were native Frenchmen who understood local dialects fluently, had extensive knowledge of the towns and countryside, and knew local people and informants.
context_section_description: Early Milice volunteers included members of France's pre-war far-right parties (such as the Action Française) and working-class men convinced of the benefits of the Vichy government's politics. In addition to ideology, incentives for joining the Milice included employment, regular pay and rations. (The latter became particularly important as the war continued, and civilian rations dwindled to near-starvation levels.) Some joined because members of their families had been killed or injured in Allied bombing raids or had been threatened, extorted or attacked by French Resistance groups. Still others joined for more mundane reasons: petty criminals were recruited by being told their sentences would be commuted if they joined the organization, and Milice volunteers were exempt from transportation to Germany as forced labour. It is estimated by several historians (including Julian T. Jackson) that the Milice's membership reached 25,000–30,000 by 1944, although official figures are difficult to obtain. The majority of members were not full-time militiamen, but devoted only a few hours per week to their Milice activities. The Milice had a section for full-time members, the Franc-Garde, who were permanently mobilized and lived in barracks.
  The Milice also had youth sections for boys and girls, called the Avant-Garde.
caption: Resistance members captured by the Milice, July 1944. One of the miliciens is armed with a captured British Sten gun.
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