Joseph Darnand (19 March 1897 – 10 October 1945) was a French collaborator with Nazi Germany during World War II.

A decorated soldier in the French Army of World War I and early World War II, he went on to become the organizer and de facto leader of the Milice française, or French Militia, the collaborationist Vichy government's paramilitary police force.

Between the wars, Darnand joined a number of far-right political, paramilitary organizations: l'Action Française in 1925, the Croix-de-Feu in 1928, La Cagoule and Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party (PPF) in 1936.

[2] He formed his own Fascist outfit, the Chevaliers du Glaive (Knights of the Sword); in the 1930s he became prominent among La Cagoule, or the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men"), a secret terrorist group that organised bombings and assassinations, and that stored arms in depots all over France.

[3] At the beginning of World War II, Darnand volunteered to join the French Army and was commissioned as a lieutenant.

The same year, he founded the collaborationist militia, Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL), that supported Philippe Pétain and Vichy France.

Darnand's turn to the SS was also influenced by the fact that miliciens were being targeted for assassination by the Resistance but Vichy and Wehrmacht authorities refused to arm the Milice.

"[7] In early 1944, Vichy France announced a new law empowering Darnand "to create special courts martial to try on the spot" persons caught in violent acts against the state.

[8] After the Normandy Invasion and Allied advance, Darnand fled to Germany in September 1944 and joined the pro-Nazi puppet government in the Sigmaringen enclave.