La milice - article ; n°1 ; vol.28, pg 83-106

Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire - Année 1990 - Volume 28 - Numéro 1 - Pages 83-106
The Militia, Jean-Pierre Azéma.
This study of the Vichy Militia is entirely based on archives. The Praetorian Guard of the French State, first recruited among members of the War Veterans' Legion it mobilized up to 30.000 « revolutionaries » often of modest background. Its leader, Joseph Darnand, made it the worst tool in the « Franco-French war », the Gestapo's zealous auxiliary perfectly at home in the structures of the French State, even if it did not succeed in making it fully totalitarian. Thoroughly hated, the Militians carried to an extreme the internal logic of the Vichy regime.
24 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.