The German Occupation
Following the invasion of Poland by the German army on September 1, 1939, France declared war on Germany. Then followed the "phoney war" until Marshal Pétain, honored by the First World War, resolved to collaborate with the enemy. France was immediately invaded. A demarcation line separates the occupied zone to the north from the free zone to the south.
Compulsory Labor Service
On November 11, 1942, Germany invaded the Free Zone. From then on, the whole country was under German occupation. On February 16, 1943, the Vichy government ordered young men between the ages of twenty and twenty-two to go to Germany to lend a hand to the occupier. France is the only country occupied with ordering this obligation itself.
The Militia and the Maquisards
Following this compulsory transfer to Germany, and with the French Forces of the Interior working in secret, many young men mobilized took to the maquis. They take refuge in the countryside, hide from the German occupiers and categorically refuse to set foot among the enemy. From there will be born the French militia, as ruthless as the Gestapo, which will hunt down the resistance fighters and any opponent of the STO.