A Frenchman who collaborated with the Nazi German army was shot dead by a French police firing squad in Rennes on November 21, 1944, after the liberation of France. They were photographed at the moment the bullets hit them. Just before he was put to death, the cord tied to the executioner's table flew apart.
The legal purges (épuration légale) were a series of official trials that followed France's liberation from Nazi Germany and the fall of the Vichy regime in World War II. The trials took place mainly between 1944 and 1949, and the legal actions that followed lasted for several decades. France was liberated on August 25, 1944, when the last German troops surrendered to the Allied forces in Paris.
Unlike the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, this was a legal purge that took place only in France. About 300,000 cases were investigated, ranging from the highest officials of the Vichy government who were collaborators with Nazi Germany. More than half of the cases were closed without prosecution. from 1944 to 1951, official French courts sentenced some 6,763 people to death for treason and other crimes. Of these, 3,910 were sentenced in absentia. The actual number of death sentences carried out amounted to about 791. The largest number was for the crime of national depravity, in which some 49,723 people lost their citizenship.
In the immediate aftermath of the liberation of France from Nazi Germany, there was a series of convictions, executions, public humiliation and assaults, and detention of suspected Nazi German collaborators in what was called the Wild Purge. This period was preceded by the establishment of the Provisional Government of France, which was occupied and ruled by Nazi Germany. It was estimated that about 10,500 people were sentenced and executed, both before and after the liberation of France. The Court of Justice handed down some 6,763 death sentences. Of these, 3,910 were sentenced in absentia, and about 2,853 were sentenced in the presence of the accused. About 73% of these 2,853 sentences were commuted by Charles de Gaulle, and about 767 more were commuted. The military tribunals ordered the execution of about 770 people. The total number of people executed before and after the liberation was about 10,500, including, among others, officials and leaders of military organizations. The U.S. military estimated the number of summary executions after liberation at about 80,000; the French Minister of the Interior in March 1945 claimed that the number executed was about 105,000.
The initial purges began before and after the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, when the anger of French citizens turned against collaborators of Nazi Germany. Punishments after arrest included beatings, torture interrogation, and summary executions. Most of the women collaborators had their heads shaved, and some had swastikas carved on their foreheads. There were three types of trials for Nazi German collaborators: the first was in criminal courts for violating Article 75 of the French Penal Code, which outlawed treason and sharing information with the enemy; the second was in civilian courts for suspects who did not violate specific laws but whose actions were considered unpatriotic; and the third was in public opinion, where the general public was against certain celebrities. The third was tried and executed for treason due to public outrage over a particular celebrity.
