This initial zone of occupation annexed officially to the Kingdom of Italy[1] was 832 square kilometres (321 sq mi) and contained 28,500 inhabitants.

The main city inside the "demilitarized zone" of 50 km (31 mi) from the former border with the Italian Alpine Wall[2] was Nice.

A study of the postal history of the region has cast new light on the part of France controlled by the Italians and the Germans (Trapnell, 2014).

[citation needed] The Vichy regime that controlled southern France was friendly toward Italy, seeking concessions of the sort Germany would never make in its occupation zone.

German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop complained to Mussolini that "Italian military circles... lack a proper understanding of the Jewish question.

Alois Brunner, the SS official for Jewish affairs, was placed at the head of units formed to search out Jews.

In 1940, the Italian Armistice Commission (Commissione Italiana d'Armistizio con la Francia, CIAF) produced two detailed plans concerning the future of the occupied French territories.

[14] Plan 'A' presented an Italian military occupation all the way to the river Rhone, in which France would maintain its territorial integrity except for Corsica and Nizza.