Did civil war take place in France during the Second World War, when the country was occupied by the Germans? While historians agree that this was not the case, there were nonetheless situations that came close. Extremely violent fratricidal battles between resistance fighters and collaborators took place in certain regions during the last months of the Occupation and the first days of the Liberation. Although the purge was at the heart of a “black” legend, which nostalgic Vichy supporters claim was a veritable bloodbath, the violence of the purge process can in no way be compared with the repression carried out by the Germans and their French henchmen. To understand the purge, it is essential to place it in the context of the spiral of violence in which the country was caught between 1940 and 1944.