Research into family histories and local areas during the Second World War reveals a complex picture of choices made by French citizens. Local policemen arrested Jewish men and women, handing them over to Nazi forces, with these gendarmes operating under local administrators who reportedly complied with Nazi commandants.
Conversely, Resistance memorials, often found in rural locations, list names including Jewish and, in at least one instance, a Black member of the Resistance. Even as the Nazi occupation neared defeat, some young French men joined the armed Milice, who collaborated with the occupiers to betray the Resistance.
Immediately after the war, reprisals against the Milice sometimes involved summary executions. Local administrators who aided the Nazis may have been tried, found guilty, and imprisoned, but were later released under state-ordered amnesties.