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France was divided after the fall of Paris in 1940. North France was occupied by the nazi regime, while southern France was free Vichy France which operated out of an hotel. The French government itself fled to the UK in exile.
France was divided after the fall of Paris in 1940. North France was occupied by the nazi regime, while southern France was free Vichy France which operated out of an hotel. The French government itself fled to the UK in exile.
Well that is what the French tell themselves and the world to justify so much of what happened during WWII. The truth however is far more complicated and will be in part reveled by the release of said documents.
Well that is what the French tell themselves and the world to justify so much of what happened during WWII
Have you read many French history books lately? Watched many programmes on French History broadcast on French cable/satellite channels? Talked to many History students in France or studying French history.... in fact have you spoke to many Frenchman that have been to school in the last 40 odd years?
Don't tell me what I tell myself or what other Frenchman tell themselves, your making a presumptive comment that covers 100% of a countries population, "the French"...... really.
Well that is what the French tell themselves and the world to justify so much of what happened during WWII. The truth however is far more complicated and will be in part reveled by the release of said documents.
The documents are being released for public review, but most of them have already been available to researchers. I doubt much new territory will be tread with the information. For the most part France has been very open and reflective about the complex issues during that period and the division of the nation and the people.
The documents are being released for public review, but most of them have already been available to researchers. I doubt much new territory will be tread with the information. For the most part France has been very open and reflective about the complex issues during that period and the division of the nation and the people.
Well said.
My bet is the new records releases only add details about specific individuals to story that is already known in very good detail. Even these additions will not be that exciting as the individuals discussed in them are deceased and most have been so for about twenty years or more. Now, released of new records concerning the Algerian War would raise more controversy as a number of the participants are still alive.
Is this mostly about what happened to the Jews of France during WW2? Will this enable the Israelis to demand reproachments, and apologies?
It's mainly about the actions of various people in terms of how they collaborated with the Germans. Certainly there will be some aspects of this related to the persecution of Jews in France, but I think the majority of the material will go well beyond that and speak more to the specifics of collaboration and work of Vichy officials against the resistance. The timing of the release ensures that the vast majority of those who might have details of their roles during this time revealed are now dead.
As for the role France played in the Holocaust, that has already been very well documented and covered, including a formal state apology in 1995.
Barely two months after taking office, President Jacques Chirac today publicly recognized France's responsibility for deporting thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps during the German occupation in World War II.
His statement put an end to decades of equivocations by successive French Governments about France's wartime role.
"These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions," he said during ceremonies marking the 53d anniversary of the first mass arrests of Jews in Paris. "Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state."
In particular the Vel' D'Hiv roundup was a particularly heinous act and the one that Chirac was specifically speaking about. In this case the Vichy government coordinated a massive roundup of 13,000 Jews and the action was carried out by French police forces.
Overall, like has been said, it was a very complicated situation in France. Petain was not an "evil" person. He was doing what he felt was best by maintaining the independence and identity of the French nation, complete with its own police forces under French command. The problem was that if he did not use the police and French institutions to do the bidding of the Germans, then they would simply take away that independence and do whatever they wanted to anyway. The French guilt is tied not only to this collaboration, but the outright zeal with which some elements of the French gendarmes carried out these actions.
Throughout the occupation you have those that resisted, those that collaborated and then the vast majority that simply went on living and waiting to see how the war would turn out. Many of those people now feel the collective guilt, not because they collaborated but because they didn't resist.
Very good to see more background coming out on a terrible chapter of French WWII history.
Even though some information has been seen before it still just may have some use in perhaps developing linkages when married to other war information. I'd think the more information the better.
Also, it will be interesting to see the information in light of already produced documentaries on Vichy and the 'Resistance' (The Sorrow and the Pity for example). Who knows how the production could have possibly changed or not with the presence of new information coming out today. In any case I hope the latter would add to the learning of that grave period of time in France where the country and people were ripped apart by betrayals and occupation.
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