Billancourt Under the Eye of the Occupier
The Renault factory at Billancourt is the largest industrial concentration in France. Since the summer of 1940, it has operated under the control of German executives from Daimler-Benz, and orders from the occupier keep piling up.
In June 1941, learns that he is now forbidden to manufacture passenger cars: his civilian sector is shrinking to almost nothing, in favor of trucks destined for the Wehrmacht. The factory is running at only 40% of its capacity, with tens of thousands of workers.
At 68, a patriot yet anxious to save his company and its workshops, Renault must set his course. He can keep producing for the occupier, quietly slow things down, or cease all activity at the risk of losing the factory.
Faced with German demands, should Louis Renault keep his factory's production running, slow it down, or even halt it altogether?
chose to keep the factory running and to produce for the occupier, delivering thousands of trucks to the Wehrmacht, in the hope of preserving his industrial tool and its jobs. Billancourt was heavily bombed by the Allies in 1942-1943. At the Liberation, Renault was arrested for economic collaboration, died in detention in October 1944, and his company was nationalized in January 1945 under the name Régie Renault.
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