Reflexivity of Analysis in the Events of World War II in France and their Commemoration

Paul Fischer

10/20/2017

Professor Zdatny

Word Count: 705

Rousso, Henry. The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944. Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press, 1991.

Reflexivity of Analysis in the Events of World War II in France and their Commemoration

The Occupation of France in World War II represents a chronological web because while 10,000 collaborators were summarily shot or hanged after liberation, those responsible for deportations were not tried for decades. Even functionary trials extended into the fifties and beyond. Each of these subsequent developments had their roots firmly in the final years of World War II and especially the events that passed during that cold winter. Henry Rousso navigates this web masterfully in The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944.

There is a functional chronology as the primary thesis of the book is to analyze the historical commemoration of the occupation and liberation. Rousso believes the actions of Vichy France to play a greater role in French reconciliation of the memory of the war than other factors. This is due to the “prism of Vichy” through which the people of France perceive the war even today (10). It should be noted that this is an evolving prism, an example can be seen as the liberal reversal in the view of the Israeli state to a symbol of Western colonialism and return to support (81). Such developments in political analysis match the timeline proposed by Rousso precisely.

First came the period of repression marked by pardons and clemency. Then came a short but turpitudinous “broken mirror” period followed by two overlapping periods of obsession. With the trial of Klaus Barbie and the death of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix in the 1980s, it is only during the period of obsession that the final solution returned as a primary focus of historians and in the public eye from the period. The progression in public opinion is matched and supported with evidentiary analysis of laws, films, and publications (222)

There are three structural factors of the Vichy syndrome identified by Rousso. Catholicism played a fundamental role in Pétainism and contributed to the scandals and is argued to continue to play a political role after 1940 in France (299). Left-right political differences drew on the resistance in the aftermath of the war, and it was the decision to pursue Gaullo-Pétainism by liberals that allowed the right to rehabilitate itself from being a purely fascist entity in Europe. Finally anti-semitism plays a critical role in the Vichy syndrome, returning to the public eye in the 1960s and climaxing by 1980.

He draws a hard line between functional historical analysis and that of memory. This definition aids the reader throughout the book to identify with the considerable job of narrowing down an enormous body of knowledge and to understand his decision making process in doing so. Memory is cast as a reflexive action, only a repercussion to an event (2). Historical analysis should be a reconstruction of events and deconstruction of biases and motivating factors.

This hard line creates the basis for a scientific evaluation of the stages through which decades of domestic and geopolitical politics took remembrance of the liberation. In doing so, Rousso uses moments in the war to illustrate contemporary developments in the press and film of the portrayal as well as their convergence and divergence. These developments allow the proof of three structural facets to the Vichy Syndrome. Combined with a timeline of the history of the history of the Resistance, two vectors of analysis are then created that allow for a diagnosis of the “syndrome” represented by Vichy encroachment on public consciousness.

The extent of the malady is then approached, estimated, and through work like that of Rousso’s is treated. There are multiple novel historical concepts introduced and defined in this work, including extended redefinitions of functional terms. This does not clutter the work, but instead allows a certain genius of clarity to glimmer forth. A quick summary of these three structural factors as well as a chronological sketch is provided above though it is certainly worth cracking the book to flesh out the specific examples.

The allusions to primary sources are abundant and well cited. Some of the work is popular literature and cinema in addition to historical writing and documentary work; Rousso gives the reader a hand by offering a clear division in definition between the two. To do otherwise would be hypocritical at the least.

A Rare Specimen of Nationalist Collaboration in Robert Brasillach

Paul Fischer

10/18/2017

Professor Zdatny

Kaplan, Alice. The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach. Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Word Count: 708

A Rare Specimen of Nationalist Collaboration in Robert Brasillach

In 1942 in France there existed a certain writer devoid of integrity. Once a member of a politically diverse group of gifted academics, Robert Brasillach drifted into the sphere of a close family friend, Maurice Bardèche, and then through conservative society in France to Nazism. In The Collaborator by Alice Kaplan, two major implements of innocence are offered in addition to an intimate history of the writer’s career and trial. The career of the writer is difficult to reconstruct; even such important facts as the nature of his sexuality have been lost to history.

Apologizing for denouncers of the Resistance and anti semites is serious. By the millennium, the case of Robert Brasillach had attracted attention as a case in which French Justice was too harsh, and great in its reach (234). Enough stress cannot be placed on the seriousness of the actions of Brasillach that resulted in the death of writers. Facts have not changed since the event of the trial.

In the early moments, Brasillach appeared to be one of the greatest minds of France. Even in a POW camp, though his mind had begun to experience the creeping poison of anti semitic indoctrination, he demonstrated a genius intellectual prowess, writing novels in their entirety before other inmates without edits (40). The work of Alain-Fournier inspired him to write in “tight, voluptuous little paragraphs” in his early novels and essays (5). Sitting adorned with all of the splendor and “iron jewels” of a prisoner, he wished during his trial to appear a quiet and humble writer of novels and romantic work, and to shed the subsuming odor of collaborationist denunciation, murder, and pillage that his actions cloaked him in (190).

At that time, with a bleak outlook, the attorney of Brasillach, Jacques Isorni told him that they could only “remain steadfast and hope” (185). Unable to prove innocence of the crimes that resulted or contributed to the deaths of fellow Frenchmen, the legal case rested on the impropriety of the proceedings. With his offensive retaliation to the accusations of Marcel Reboul, the prosecuting attorney, Isorni subtly pointed to the Prosecution’s historical quest to convict black marketeers of the Resistance.  This fails exactly because the black market in occupied France was frequently run by Germans themselves, and many of the targets of Reboul’s court had been Germans through the war (102).

Isorni’s own work in the Special Committee defending Jews helped serve a contrast of collaborative administrative roles. It would not be until much later that speculation was offered that this was a trial about crimes against the “humanity of the pen” (218). At the time of the trial, concentration camps had shocked the nation, those defending in such cases as the Brasillach trial as well. In his last days the poetry he writes is despondent and both sexual and racial postures atypical of a racist denunciatory Nazi are presented (189). The guilt of the defendant can be supposed, and there seems to be an understanding of the justice in the verdict at the end of the war in this literary and social critic.

Brasillach himself had few pieces of credible defense. He quit his job at the denunciatory Je Suis Partout, but too late to be considered an act of resistance (152). His work selling classics may have been miscast in the trial, but a trial does not consist of the facts that fall, but those that stand. Brasillach is a man who sat up straight at the docket and defended collaborationist nationalism in the light of the holocaust and Nazi defeat.

Kaplan’s treatment of the life is light by necessity, and with about 100 pages devoted to the trial, she focuses on what is known rather than what is forgotten and lost of his life. As a historian, she exhibits a restraint in tackling a difficult case that has seduced many into sympathy for the Nazi at trial. This is not done by political maneuver or conjecture, but a simple and logical progression through the facts of the case that are known.

The French Beat: Love, Violence, and Rape of the American Liberation

Paul Fischer

10/10/2017

Professor Zdatny

Word Count: 737

Roberts, Mary Louise. What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France. Chicago and London, The Chicago University Press, 2013.

The French Beat: Love, Violence, and Rape of the American Liberation

There is a gritty progression as What Soldiers Do by Marie Louise Roberts digs into American activities in France during World War II without gloves. Early discussion of “cheesecake” and the mutual sexual identities of the two nations sets a broad foundation for the evidentiary analysis of the host of criminality espoused by prostitution and pimping. This evolves into an extended discussion of how rape helps define the stimulus relationship of libido-driven communications between victor and the liberated. That relationship is a curious one worthy of analysis because while similar to that of the victor and vanquished, there are notable differences.

What the German men had been commissioned to do, the French women did on accident or out of necessity. Droves of informal prostitutes and informally condoned American sexuality meant that by the time of the North African campaign venereal disease had become the most prevalent reason for hospitalization among soldiers (163). A trend had been established, and Roberts sets out to not only explores the causes but also the repercussions of an uncontrolled army in Europe in 1944 and 1945.

In order to create a setting of both national mindsets, the former occupation by Germany in France is historicized. While a tightly regulated prostitution ring and insistence on fellatio played some role in the relatively effective control of venereal disease among German soldiers and the French, it is likely the deportation of two million male POWs and tens of thousands of female prostitutes to labor camps in Germany was equally critical to the “success” of the repressive occupation (146). During the American occupation there is no corollary for these actions, though some individual officers did transfer infected prostitutes to refugee camps out of desperation at times (127).

French MPs provided some regulation but also frequently double timed as pimps, charging access fees to prostitutes, providing little help (180). Communications and pimping are two factors that may explain how the regulation of prostitution of 1941 did not produce problems in American bases such as Hawaii it did in France (184). Perhaps the strongest argument to look the other way for soldiers such as General Gerhardt lay in the homophobia and fear of what was believed to be perversion amongst the ranks without sanctioned outlets (175).

It is likely that the return of POWs created a mindset of intolerance that is shown in demonstrations such as the tonte, in which women who had loved Germans had their head shorn and were marched through the streets. The attitude was also directed at GIs: some French bristled at the sight of some “ex-gangster from Chicago” fornicating with foreign women in public (106). Ameri-Franco relations were complicated by the unique role of liberator, rather than victor. The French mindset was threatened by these factors, but rape played a sensationalist tune to the newly racialized ears of the liberated nation.

Most rape in France was attributed to blacks in the Army. While no distinctions were claimed between white and black soldiers in the US Army other than segregation at the time, these soldiers were also prohibited from combat duty (225). The reports of rape, which occurred in two waves, were frequently unsubstantiated or blatantly false. One official remarked that given the numbers of soldiers deployed in the greatest human movement of mankind the Army did well in control. French racism was not the only culprit; the American military hoped to engender a heterosexual romance that was “corrupted” by rape. Scapegoating black military service members turned out to be a step into a bear trap on the way to the Times Square kiss (257).

There are multiple factors making the sexual break of late-war France phenomenal and unique in nature. Firstly, the American libido had been primed by successful stories of the Expeditionary Force of World War One. Secondly, as French men returned from POW camps a crisis in manhood coupled with prostitution with a shortage of pimps  or rules to accelerate violence, though some women felt less exploited in this way. Finally, the same cold winter that drove the Germans out of Russia in 1944 and ‘45 also drove French women to a degraded status. This triplicate of factors meant that the actuality of a raped nation existed in duality with liberation.

Rags to Strikes to Blood: Confusions Coalesce in Liberation

Paul Fischer

10/2/2017

Professor Zdatny

Gildea, Robert. Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance. Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2015.

Rags to Strikes to Blood: Confusions Coalesce in Liberation

Resistance had an unsure beginning in the humiliation of the defeat of 1940. False starts plagued a crisis in command and in terms of tangible resources to bog the French resistance to German occupation down. Fighters in the Shadows by Robert Gildea details the brave leaders in France and abroad who initiated and carried out the fight for liberation as well as the distinct sequence of events that brought many early Pétainists from Vichy collaborationist policies to outright guerilla warfare. Three critical developments through the war are discussed in the book that will be highlighted in this review. Together these describe how France fell out of favor with the occupying Fatherland and instead subsumed a sort of “shadowland fraught with danger and often reality struck back with brutal effect” (157).

Early in the war, a popular way of demonstrating opposition to the Germans was to publish “rags” or a newssheet such as Défense de la France (71). Among the dozen or so pictures in the book is a sequence of four pictures contrasting wartime and peacetime among the French, including the young flyboy Jean Cavailles. These are demonstrative of the progression of French resistance presented in the book.

“Resistance activity was structured, above all, through writing, printing and distribution of underground newspapers,” an undertaking that allowed greater involvement of French women in addition to increasing the breadth of appeal to the general public (143). A snapshot of the larger resistance is provided in the work of Sabine Zlatin, who saved over five hundred Jewish children from camps during the war through the organization of religious youth workers who stayed in camps, often only as teens, and offered services (203). Decades after the war, Serge Klarsfeld would challenge the resistance narrative by declaring during the Barbie trial of 1987, “the fact of being a Jewish child condemned you to death more surely than any act of resistance” (465). Ultimately, it would turn out, the fate of both were hand in hand.

While female involvement in the war took many forms, including extraction of both Protestants and Jews from internment camps once deportations began, one of the ubiquitous forms of heroism and sacrifice was in the common strikes undertaken, with encouragement of the Communist Party. The sources of such demonstrations of solidarity with the Allies were many, but all carried the similarity of virtually unprecedented brutality in official response. This in turn created a “cult of martyrs, which served the growing legend of communist heroism and self-sacrifice”; more importantly such strikes initiated the provocation of Germans to deport French men to work camps (175). This action of German belligerence, calling 75,000 young men to work and demanding three workers for every POW returned, did as much as, perhaps more than, any amount of propaganda or even antisemitic actions to stoke the flames of resistance (139).

Brutality and execution of striking workers were not the only reason the Germans failed, nor were they limited to France (428). Just as the Nazis spread across Europe, so too did the anti-fascist network of spies and fighters. With American entry in the war, Germany took another action to cement the opposition against them: the occupation of all of France in 1944 and disregard for the Armistice (262). Vichy was finally at war with the Nazis. Not all Vichy were united in resistance, nor were the resisters united. Two newly distinct forms of resistance emerged and were in competition.

While some officers in the 100,000 strong Armistice Army formed a secret society, French hopes for liberation lay in the arms of DeGaulle in London and General Giraud, the future commander-in- chief of the reformed French Army. Giraud’s motto: ‘A single goal, Victory’ was appealing to the United States, who did not see Vichy as an inoperable state as the British believed (277). Giraud’s Free French would come to a head when Moulin, who convened the National Council of Resistance in 1943, was arrested (286). Metropolitan resistance and the Free French Army would remain at conflict in interest throughout Operation African Torch, as European resisters felt abandoned.

Supply drops at the time were intermittent, and relief or escape infrequent, though groups such as the Shelburn Network did provide some avenues for both (312). One of the most visually gripping points in the book is the meeting of two very different types of guerrilla following the march across Tunisia. Paul’s plan, intended to slow German counter-movements, resulted in a maximum slow-down of guerrilla movements, and the Free-French army was dirty, disheveled and rugged upon meeting their Vichy counterparts who would now join them, even though they had previously fought one another. In a manner symbolic of the general resistance, however, that army had won the coherent respect of Allied commanders and their vanquished foes alike. The brutality of Nazism not only served to sharpen the Allied identity, but also forged new patriotism amongst Frenchmen from the ashes of humiliation.