Milice

The Milice, formally the Milice francaise or French Militia, was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy regime, with German aid, to help fight the French Resistance during World War II. Its formal head was Prime Minister Pierre Laval, while its chief of operations and real leader was Secretary General Joseph Darnand, whose earlier Service d'ordre legionnaire it succeeded. Historians estimate that membership reached 25,000 to 30,000 by 1944, most of them part-time volunteers, with a full-time armed section called the Franc-Garde and youth sections known as the Avant-Garde. The Milice took part in summary executions, assassinations and the roundup of Jews and resistance members for deportation, and it attempted to suppress the Resistance at Glieres in March 1944 before German troops had to complete the operation. Its members were often reprisal targets after the Allied liberation of France in 1944.