Be interesting to see what turns up. "France is opening up police and ministerial archives from the Vichy regime which collaborated with Nazi occupation forces in World War Two. More than 200,000 declassified documents are being made public on Monday. They date from the 1940-1944 regime of Marshal Philippe Petain. During the war the Vichy regime helped Nazi Germany to deport 76,000 Jews from France, including many children. France is also opening files from its post-liberation provisional government. The Vichy documents come from the wartime ministries of the interior, foreign affairs and justice, as well as the police. Some of the archives relate to war crimes investigations conducted by the French liberation authorities after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Speaking to French TF1 television news, historian Gilles Morin said the archives would probably shed new light on the arrest of Jean Moulin, a French Resistance leader who died after his capture and torture by the Nazis in 1943. Police records and notes seized from French Resistance comrades will now add to the witness statements that researchers have relied on until now, Mr Morin said. "There is also a demand from the children of deportees, and of those who were executed, who want to know - and that's a legitimate demand," he said." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35188755
Curious about what will come out, IMO the French side of WW2 is a less well documented than many any other countries due to French reluctance of bringing into the limelight some very sensitive subjects while some protagonists are still alive. And Vichy is probably the hottest potato of all.
I'm also curious. I hope some questions will be answered. Vichy France has always been a mystery to me.
Like finding out about a grandfather in the Milice or an uncle who wrote denounciation letters to the Kommandantur . On the other hand once people know, it will put an end to many rumors which accused innocents . It makes me think of the opening of the East German Stasi archives. The former DDR germans faced a similar situation in the 1990s when many former stool pigeons were still alive.
I don't think there will any great revelations..authors and researchers have had access - on request - to these archives for a long time. What's changed is that any person may now access them with no special permissions required.
Not to mention that some documents have been classified for 100 years, so we'd have another 30 years to wait.
