Based on thousands of Vichy documents only recently returned to France and made available to the public, Simon Kitson’s Vichy and the Hunt for Nazi Spies recounts the previously untold story of Vichy France’s pursuit of German spies during World War II. Between 1940 and 1942, the Vichy secret service arrested approximately 2,000 spies working for Germany in the non-occupied zone and colonies, executing some, torturing others, in some cases even prosecuting the wives of the suspects. At the same time the Vichy government was pursuing this decidedly anti-German policy, it was also actively collaborating with the German occupiers, aiding in the deportation of Jews and Communists, and arresting its countrymen participating in the Resistance. Kitson explores this fascinating paradox at length, skillfully painting the portrait of a government at once resisting and aiding the cause of a foreign aggressor. He also supplies a detailed and gripping account of the world of World War II spies and counter-spies on both sides: their daily lives, recruitment, missions, and varying allegiances (80% of the German spies captured by Vichy were French citizens).

The newly available documents, the Fonds du Moscou, were seized by the Nazis before the Allied invasion and sent to Berlin, where they were later confiscated by the Russian authorities and held in Moscow for over fifty years.