Bezen Perrot

The Bezen Perrot (Breton; lit. '"Perrot Unit"'), officially the Breton SS Armed Formation (German: Bretonische Waffenverband der SS) was a small collaborationist unit established by Breton nationalists in German-occupied France during World War II. It was made up of personnel from Lu Brezhon, a Breton nationalist militia, under the leadership of Célestin Lainé. The unit became operational in January 1944 and participated in the arrest of French Jews, labour service evaders, and resistance members in Brittany under the leadership of the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) secret police as well as a number of mass murders of civilians. From August 1944, following the Allied landings in Normandy, it was gradually withdrawn easterwards into France and then Nazi Germany where it was dissolved in the aftermath of the German surrender. Part of the group, including Lainé, managed to evade arrest, while others were imprisoned or executed in the post-war pursuit of wartime collaborators. Bezen Perrot left a legacy of brutality, hampering attempts to form an independent Breton state.