Editing Maxime Weygand (section)

==== Vichy regime ====
[[File:BA144 Ain-Arnat-Sétif Prise d-armes viste Weugand 1940.jpg|thumb|BA144 [[Ain-Arnat]]-Sétif (French Algeria): Weygand inspection 1940]]

The [[Vichy France|Vichy regime]] was set up in July 1940. Weygand continued to serve in Pétain's cabinet as [[List of Defence Ministers of France|Minister for National Defence]] until September 1940. He was then appointed Delegate-General in French North Africa.

In North Africa, he persuaded young officers, tempted to join the [[French Resistance]] against the [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|German occupation]], to go along with the armistice for the present, by letting them hope for a later resumption of combat. With the complicity of Admiral [[Jean-Marie Charles Abrial]], he deported opponents of Vichy to [[concentration camp]]s in Southern [[French Algeria|Algeria]] and [[French protectorate in Morocco|Morocco]]. Those imprisoned included [[Gaullism|Gaullists]], [[Freemasonry in France|Freemasons]], and [[History of the Jews in France|Jews]], and also [[French Communist Party|communists]], despite their obedience at the time to the [[Soviet Union]]'s orders not to support the resistance. He also arrested the foreign volunteers of the ''[[Légion Etrangère]]'', foreign refugees who were in France legally but were without employment, and others. He applied [[Vichy anti-Jewish legislation]] very harshly. With the complicity of the ''Recteur'' (University chancellor) [[:fr:Georges Hardy (historien)|Georges Hardy]], Weygand instituted, on his own authority, by a mere ''"note de service"'' (n°343QJ of 30 September 1941), a school ''numerus clausus'' (quota). This drove out most Jewish students from the colleges and the primary schools, including children aged 5 to 11. Weygand did this without any order from Pétain, "by analogy", he said, "to the law about Higher Education".

Weygand acquired a reputation as an opponent of collaboration when he protested in Vichy against the [[Paris Protocols]] of 28 May 1941, signed by Admiral [[François Darlan]]. These agreements authorized the [[Axis powers]] to establish bases in French colonies: at [[Aleppo]], [[First Syrian Republic|Syria]]; [[Bizerte]], [[French protectorate of Tunisia|Tunisia]]; and [[Dakar]], [[History of Senegal|Senegal]]. The Protocols also envisaged extensive French military collaboration with Axis forces in the event of Allied attacks against such bases. Weygand remained outspoken in his criticism of Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kitson |first=Simon |title=The hunt for nazi spies: fighting espionage in Vichy France |date=2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-43893-1 }}{{page needed |date=May 2024}}</ref>

Weygand opposed [[Wehrmacht]] bases in French territory not to help the Allies or even to keep France neutral, but rather to preserve the integrity of the [[French colonial empire|French Empire]] and maintain prestige in the eyes of the natives. Weygand apparently favoured limited [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaboration with Germany]]. The Weygand General Delegation (4th Office) delivered military equipment to the [[Panzer Armee Afrika]]: 1,200 French trucks and other [[Armistice Army]] vehicles (Dankworth contract of 1941), and also heavy artillery with 1,000 shells per gun. However, [[Adolf Hitler]] demanded full unconditional collaboration and pressured the [[Government of Vichy France|Vichy government]] to dismiss Weygand in November 1941 and recall him from North Africa. A year later, in November 1942, following the [[Operation Torch|Allied invasion of North Africa]], the Germans arrested Weygand. He remained in custody in Germany and then in the [[Itter Castle]] in North Tyrol with [[General Gamelin]] and a few other [[French Third Republic]] personalities until May 1945. He was liberated by [[United States Army]] troops after the [[Battle for Castle Itter]].