 Despite the fact that the purpose of their creation was different, these Lithuanian units participated in the Holocaust, especially within Lithuania (including the areas of Vilnius region that are now in Belarus).While Prince Louis II was strongly sympathetic to the French and later the Free French, he tried to keep Monaco neutral during World War II but supported the Vichy French government of his old army colleague, Marshal Philippe Pétain.Nonetheless, his tiny principality was tormented by domestic conflict partly as a result of Louis’ indecisiveness, and also because the majority of the population was of Italian descent; many of them supported the fascist regime of Italy's Benito Mussolini.