Firstly, when studying French collaboration during the Vichy Regime (1940-1944), you need to cleanse your mind of any Resistance myths. The norm was that most people did collaborate, some collaborated more than others.

The Resistance Myth was created just after Liberation and with the release of the film, 'Le Silence de la Mer' (The Silence of the Sea), it became the norm which everyone believed in. This lasted until about 1969. From Liberation until about 1969, it was a massive social taboo to even mention that there had been massive collaboration, even though everyone who lived through that time knew it was in fact the norm.

The first book which dealt with the Resistance Myth was written by Robert O. Paxton. The very well done documentary 'The Sorrow and the Pity' is a must see if you want to see how day to day life was during the Vichy Regime. Most interesting are the interviews with the former Wehrmacht commandant, Helmut Tausend (which oddly enough, was held during his daughter's wedding party). Tausend explained very frankly and honestly how the population of his area was engaged in business with the German Wehrmacht.

This book and this film were instrumental in debunking the great French Resistance myth, created by the film 'Le Silence de la Mer'.

The 1974 film, 'Lacombe, Lucien' by Louis Malle, was the very first film of the French New Wave generation which dealt with a very true portrayal of the Vichy Regime. It was not well received, due to the social taboo still attached at the time. However, Malle's 1988 film, 'Au revoir, les Enfants' (which dealt with a similar theme) was very well received.

The Resistance was not a very strong force, as it suffered from much in-fighting and it was riddled with a massive amount of informants in its ranks. Often the Resistance was busier fighting with itself than fighting the enemy. It was only just before Liberation that the Resistance came out of the shadows and became a real force, instead of just being 'terrorists' (as they were called by the Vichy Regime).

Recommended reading: Vichy France, Robert Paxson.

Recommended viewing: 'The Sorrow and the Pity', 'Lacombe, Lucien' and 'Au revoir, les Enfants'.

Much 'çollaboration' amounted to running the country as an occupied territory. In essence, what the Petain government did, it's civil services, police and so on. This was morally fraught because Petain accepted defeat and the need for the French people to be represented to the occupying power. Both France and Germany had occupied one another's territory in the past, at different times. But Nazi rule was different, as we know now.

At first life in France, occupied or Vichy, was fairly normal. Resistance activity was minimal. It was only later when the war turned against them that the Germans occupied Vichy France, in November 1942 as Americans landed in French North Africa and the Free French rapidly gained support and legitimacy. Later on there was mass deportation of young French men and women to perform labour in Germany and this led to a massive increase in the size of the resistance.

A pro-Nazi militia movement, the Milice, was started in early 1843 by pro-Nazi Vichy figures. They were determined to fight the often communist-led Resistance. The Milice was certainly pro-Nazi and, for example, provided men for sweeps of Resistance areas, and the information that led to the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane.