Collaboration militaire française pendant la seconde guerre mondiale: des volontaires français dans la Waffen-SS 1943-1945

Abstract

The French military collaboration started with the Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme (French volunteers' legion on Bolshevism). This military unit was a part of the German army as the 638th infantry regiment of the Wehrmacht. The legion was deployed on the front before Moscow as well as in the back area on the partisans from 1942 until 1944. In 1943, the German authorities started to recruit in France to establish a new French Waffen-SS unit. The volunteers got the instruction in the camp of Sennheim in Alsace and in Bohemia. The first contingence was deployed on the Red Army in Galicia. The mission was accomplished, but the losses were very high: 80 percent of the unit was killed, wounded or missing. Afterwards, the unit became a division with 7000 people, who fought in the combats of Pomerania and in the final battle of Berlin.