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Step 1: Prefecture, 4 rue Duguesclin. The prefects of Vichy.
Pétain's dictatorship was based on a purged civil service: Jews, Freemasons, and political opponents were dismissed. From 1941, almost the entire prefectural corps was renewed. An oath of personal loyalty to Pétain was required. Bouché-Leclercq was succeeded by Roger-Machart (11/41-02/1943), Chopin (02/43-10/43) dismissed by Laval, and finally Monzat (02/43-01/44) and Gomot, two zealous collaborators. Prefectural authority was strengthened by the abolition of elected general councils and the appointment of mayors of communes with more than 2 inhabitants. All local state services were placed under their supervision. They themselves depend on regional prefects established in April 000 by Vichy, in this case Vice-Admiral Louis Bourgain, Prefect of Vienne and the Poitiers region until 1941. It is the prefects' responsibility to enforce the Vichy laws and the German orders.
Step 2: Former Police Station, 83 rue Saint-Jean
Nationalized by Vichy, the police rounded up the Jews of Niort and hunted down resistance fighters in conjunction with the Angers police, the Paris Special Brigades and the Political Affairs Section (SAP) of Poitiers (22nd Security Brigade) of Commissioner Bernard Rousselet associated with the Sipo-SD. The police station became a place of torture. Experimented under Commissioner Georges H. from 1941, banned by Commissioner Louis Bernard at the end of 1942, torture was reintroduced under Commissioner Jean L. at the end of 1943. Chief Inspector Georges R. was the instigator. The "torture room" was on the 2nd floor. The screams of the victims were heard throughout the neighborhood as far as the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville. On May 4, 1944, SAP police tortured communist railway resistance fighters Raymond Paquet and Meunier, who broke a window while trying to throw himself out of the window to end his suffering.
Step 3: Gendarmerie barracks, 23 rue du général Largeau
Led by the commander of the Deux-Sèvres departmental company and squadron leader, Roger Dorin, the gendarmerie intervenes in rural areas and in the peripheral communes now attached to Niort (Souché, Saint-Pezenne, Saint-Florent, Saint-Liguaire). Its missions are identical to those of the police. Although affiliated with the Army Resistance Organization (ORA, from the armistice army dissolved in November 1942), Dorin, a Vichy resistance fighter, obeys the orders of the regime to the end and carries out, with the police, the roundup of French Jews on January 31, 1944.
Step 4: Palace of Justice, 2 rue du Palais
The judiciary was purged and reliable men were appointed to key positions. From 1941 to 1944, the French State Prosecutor in Niort was Pierre B. de F., a Pétainist and zealous collaborator. The activity of the criminal court increased very sharply under the Occupation, fueled, in a context of shortages, by the increase in thefts, violations of the legislation on supplies (illicit increases, black market), the moral policy of Vichy (increased repression of adultery and abortion), and the convictions of resistance fighters, the latter generally being picked up by the Germans, shot or deported. Justice was more severe (fewer suspended sentences and heavier firm sentences), particularly against modest social categories, employees, and especially women, many more of whom were tried than before the war.
Step 5: City Hall, 1 place Martin Bastard
Émile Panou, a doctor, residing at 15 rue de Ribray, elected mayor on May 20, 1935 on a center-right "Entente républicaine" list, joined the Vichy regime. On February 10, 1941, he was retained as Mayor of Niort by ministerial decree. In June 1941, the Municipal Council decided to change the name of Avenue de Paris to Avenue du Maréchal Pétain. On June 4, 1943, Panou was appointed a member of the departmental council established by Laval. He was dismissed by the Resistance in September 1944.
Step 6: Headquarters of the French Popular Party (PPF), 1 av. de la Quintinie (av. des Martyrs de la Résistance).
The French Popular Party (PPF) was founded in 1936 by Jacques Doriot, former leader of the French Communist Party (PCF), from which he was expelled in 1934. Before the war, it was a far-right party. During the Occupation, it became a collaborationist party. The collaborationists adhered to Nazi ideology and outbid the Vichy regime by wanting to go further in collaboration. At its peak in November 1942, in France and North Africa, the PPF is said to have gathered 40 to 50 members. In Deux-Sèvres, its membership was around 000 members. The PPF had paramilitary groups and formed the Social Justice Action Groups (GAJS) to track down those who refused to participate in the Compulsory Work Service (STO).
Step 7: Headquarters of the National Popular Rally (RNP), 26 rue du Rabot
The Rassemblement National Populaire (RNP) was founded by the ex-socialist Marcel Déat in February 1941. It was the second major collaborationist party, with 20 to 30 members at its peak, including around 000 in Deux-Sèvres. It had paramilitary groups and participated with the PPF in the creation in 80 of the Comité ouvrier de secours immédiate (COSI) which helped victims of Allied bombings, in particular by distributing goods looted from families of Jewish origin. On April 1942, 30, the RNP premises were destroyed by an attack by the Resistance.
Step 8: Headquarters of the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF), 29 rue Ricard
Created in Paris on July 6, 1941 at the initiative of the collaborationist movements, the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF) constitutes an association organizing the recruitment of volunteers to fight in the USSR, alongside the Axis forces. There will be 20 candidates and 000 retained until 6. They constitute a Wehrmacht infantry regiment (IR 500), which Jacques Doriot joined from 1944 to 638. In France, the association of Friends of the LVF participates in Nazi propaganda; it has 1941 members in Deux-Sèvres. At the end of 1944, the survivors of the LVF will be incorporated into the SS Charlemagne Division composed of French Waffen-SS. There were in total more than 200 French people to enlist in German military formations.
Step 9: Former Rex cinema, 7 esplanade de la République. Propaganda of the Collaboration movement.
The Collaboration group, founded in February 1941 and led by the writer Alphonse de Châteaubriant, had around 42 members and was aimed mainly at notables and the arts and literature circles. It organised conferences and the screening of propaganda films throughout France. On its initiative, on 000 April 15, a German academic, Professor Friedrich Grimm, as part of a national tour that reached over 1943 listeners, gave a conference at the Rex cinema "in front of many personalities from the department and the occupying army" according to the collaborationist press. On 50 October, still at the Rex, the RNP screened the film "President Kruger", which denounced the attitude of the English during the Boer War in South Africa (000-13).
Step 10: Headquarters of the Vichy French Militia, 1 esplanade de la République
The French Militia came from the Legionary Order Service (SOL), created in 1942 by Joseph Darnand to bring together the most radical elements of the French Legion of Combatants. Founded in January 1943 by decision of Pétain and Laval, led by Darnand, authorized in the Northern zone in January 1944, it requisitioned the headquarters of the Automobile Club of Niort. With 30 members, it had a paramilitary organization, the Franc-Garde, which fought the maquisards alongside the Germans. In 000, its courts martial had 1944 resistance fighters shot. The collaborationists in Deux-Sèvres brought together a total of 200 people. As everywhere, they were a breeding ground for informers and double agents in the service of the Sipo-SD. Collaborators entered the Vichy government, and in 450, Darnand was appointed head of law and order. Vichy became a "militia state." (DT)