France is opening up police and legal archives from the Vichy regime which collaborated with Nazi occupiers during World War II, authorities said Sunday.
The order, signed Dec. 24 and effective Monday, allows the archives to be "freely consulted" by the civil service, citizens and researchers, though it does allow exceptions for any documents classified under national defense, reported the Associated Press. In that case, top defense and security heads will decide whether such a document will made public.
The Vichy regime, led by Marshal Philippe Petain, collaborated with the invading German army from 1940-1944. During this time, the government is credited with helping the Nazis deport 76,000 Jews, including many children, from France.
This was particularly dark time in France's history, and the state's responsibility in the mass deportation was officially recognized in 1995 by the president at the time, Jacques Chirac.
"These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions," he said, according to the BBC. "Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state."
The more than 200,000 declassified documents include documents from the foreign, justice and interior ministries as well as from France's post-liberation government relating to events dating from September 1939 to May 1945. Documents from as late as Dec. 31, 1960 are fair game so long as the files relate to matters that happened during the aforementioned time period, according to AFP.
French historian Gilles Morin says the archives will offer a window into the operation of the collaborationist regime.
