Thousands of French Nazi collaborators to be exposed as official reports are published online for the first time

Thousands of French people who collaborated with the Nazis are to be unmasked as secret files from 70 years ago are finally made public.

The records, which include information passed on to the Gestapo by those who lived during the Occupation of 1940-44, will be published online.

The archive will give survivors and their relatives an opportunity to discover what happened to their loved ones - and if any countrymen played a part in their betrayal.

Tragic end: The only photo French Resistance fighters facing the firing squad at Mont Valerien outside Paris

Since the liberation of Paris, all documentation relating to the Second World War has been kept in cardboard boxes in the basement of the city's Police Museum.



A museum spokesman said: 'They include notes from interrogations, as well as information passed on to the authorities willingly.'

The archive includes every police log from stations across France, as well as details of every arrest, fine and interview.

In addition to shedding light on the work of the Gestapo across France, the files will illuminate the role of the Brigade Speciale, which tracked down resistance fighters and other 'enemies' of the Nazi regime.

Victory march: German troops parade down the Champs-Elysees in Paris following their victory

All of the paperwork is officially protected by a 75 -year classification order issued by the post-war government.

But work has started on digitising them, with the 1940 material publicly available in 2015 and the rest to follow over the subsequent four years.

At least 77,000 Jews were deported to their deaths from French transit camps between 1942 and the end of the German occupation in December 1944.



Of these, around a third were French citizens and more than 8,000 were children under 13.

The French police, led by Rene Bosquet, played an important role in this work, with SS boss Heinrich Himmler describing the Frenchman as a 'precious collaborator within the framework of police collaboration'.

Bosquet initially managed to disguise his crimes after the war and was not brought to justice until many years later.



He was shot dead in June 1993, just before his trial for crimes against humanity was due to begin.

In a dramatic ruling last year, the Council of State, France's highest judicial body, said the Vichy government of the period held ' responsibility' for deportations.