Wartime collaboration
cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime
Wartime collaboration is the voluntary cooperation of local populations, officials or combatants with the enemy against their own state, often for personal gain, ideology or survival. It is widely considered as a form of betrayal and a crime (treason) as it is viewed as a breach of loyalty that compromises the safety of the citizens and sovereignty of the state. As historian Gerhard Hirschfeld says, it "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory".
The term collaborator dates to the 19th century and was used in France during the Napoleonic Wars. The meaning shifted during World War II to designate traitorous collaboration with the enemy. The related term collaborationism is used by historians who restrict the term to a subset of ideological collaborators in Vichy France who actively promoted German victory.
Etymology
The term collaborate dates from 1871, and is a back-formation from collaborator (1802), from the French collaborateur. It was used during the Napoleonic Wars against smugglers trading with England and assisting in the escape of monarchists. It is derived from the Latin collaboratus, past participle of collaborare "work with", from com- "with" + labore "to work".
The meaning of "traitorous cooperation with the enemy" dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Government of France, which cooperated with the Germans after the fall of France and during their occupation, 1940–44.
The public source identifies “Wartime collaboration” as cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wartime, collaboration and cooperation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q156744. The Library of Congress control number is sh85027962. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1871, 1802 and 1940.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wartime collaboration” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.