Joseph Darnand

Joseph Darnand and HSSPF SS-Gruppenführer Carl Oberg (left) in Paris on 2 July 1944

Joseph Darnand (19 March 1897 – 10 October 1945) was a highly decorated French soldier who later became de facto leader of the Milice, the para-military police force of the French State.

Life

Darnand was born at Coligny, Ain, Rhône-Alpes, in France. He fought in World War I and received seven citations for bravery. After the war, he worked as a cabinetmaker and later founded his own transportation company in Nice.

Darnand joined a number of right-wing political, para-military organizations; Action Francaise in 1925, the Croix-de-Feu in 1928, La Cagoule and Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party (PPF) in 1936. He formed his own League, the Chevaliers du Glaive, in the 1930s and became prominent among the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men") a secret terrorist group which was alleged to organize bombings and assassinations, and store arms depots all over France.

At the beginning of World War II, Darnand volunteered to rejoin the French army, served on the Maginot Line and was again decorated for bravery. He was captured in June 1940 but escaped and fled to Nice. He became a leading figure in the organization Légion Francaise des combattants (French Legion of Veterans) and recruited troopers for the fight against Bolshevism.

The next year, he founded the militia, Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL), for the French State to help against the so-called French Resistance. On 1 January 1943 he transformed the militia into the Milice. Although Pierre Laval was its official appointed President, Darnand was its de facto leader. Darnand's political convictions were of the Right but he was also known as a Germanophobe: On three occasions he had apparently attempted to join the French Resistance or flee to "free" French territory. Each attempt was rebuffed.

The last overture to the so-called Free French was made in July 1943. After its failure Darnand definitively turned to National Socialist Germany and the next month was made an officer of the SS. This was also influenced by the fact that miliciens were being targeted for assassination by the so-called 'Resistance' but French State and Wehrmacht authorities refused at this point to properly arm the Milice. In joining the SS, Darnand took the usual personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler, receiving the rank of Sturmbannführer (Major) in the Waffen SS.

In December 1943, he became the French State's head of police and was later Secretary of State for the Interior. Darnand expanded the Milice and by 1944 it had over 35,000 members. The organization played an important role in investigating and seeking out the so-called French Resistance.

After the Normandy Invasion and Allied advance, Darnand was eventually obliged to flee to Germany in September 1944 and joined Pétain's government in Sigmaringen where the Germans had evactuated it. In April 1945, he fled from Sigmaringen to Meran in Northern Italy. He was, however, captured after the war by the occupying Allies and taken back to France, where, during the infamous purges, he was afforded one of the many show trials and accordingly sentenced to death on 3 October 1945. He was executed by firing squad on October 10th at the Fort de Châtillon.

Bibliography

• Max Lagarrigue, 99 questions sur...les Français pendant l'Occupation (The French during German Occupation), Montpellier (France), CNDP, 2007.

Sources

• Biography in l'Humanité, 23 March 1994
• escape of Darnand Gerald Steinacher, „Ich mache Sie zum Erzbischof von Paris, wenn Sie uns helfen” Die Flucht der Vichy-Regierung nach Norditalien 1945, in: Der Schlern, Heft 1, 2007, p. 23-35.