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Patriots and Patriotism in Vichy France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

H. R. Kedward
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Extract

There are certain moments in history when major events, individual experience, and ideology coincide to such a remarkable extent that historians have to pause and look up from their patient plotting of the vagaries of humanity. One such moment was the summer of 1940 in France.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 32 , December 1982 , pp. 175 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1982

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References

1 See Dioudonnat, Pierre-Marie, Je suis partout (La Table Ronde, 1973)Google Scholar, and Plumyène, J. et Lasierra, R.. Les Fascismes français 1923–63 (Editions du Seuil, 1963)Google Scholar.

2 Keylor, W. R., Jacques Bainville and the Renaissance of Royalist history in Twentieth century France (Louisiana, 1979), pp. 527–8Google Scholar.

3 Werth, A., France 1940–55 (London, 1957), p. 66Google Scholar. Cf. Benjamin, R., Le Maréchal et son peuple (Plon, 1941)Google Scholar, which begins: ‘Quelle faveur de vivre au temps d'un homme dont on sait, dont on est sûr que, dépassant l'histoire, il entrera d'emblée dans la légende, tellement l'aventure de sa vie emporte les coeurs, tellement elle appelle le poète plus que l'historien. Haute destinée! C'est celle du Maréchal.’

4 ‘Je fais à la France le don de ma personne pour atténuer son malheur.’ (Les paroles et les écrits du Maréchal Pétain. La Légion française. n.d. Appel du 17 juin 1940.)Google Scholar

5 Miller, Gérard, Les pousse-au-jouir du maréhal Pétain (Editions du Seuil, 1975)Google Scholar.

6 Hoffmann, S., Decline or Renewal. France since the 1930s (New York, 1974)Google Scholar. Paxton, R. O., Vichy France. Old Guard and New Order, 1940–44 (New York, 1972)Google Scholar.

7 The ‘Charte du Travail’ was finally enacted in October 1941, after more than fifteen months deliberation. It can be seen as marking the last act in Vichy's ‘Révolution Nationale’. See Principes de la Rénovation Nationale, published by Vichy in 1941, Section III, Travail.

8 Morazé, Charles, La France Bourgeoise (Colin, 1946)Google Scholar. d'Aragon, Charles, La Résistance sans Héroïsme (Editions du Seuil, 1977)Google Scholar.

9 Archives Nationales, Paris [A.N.], FIC III 1193 (Tarn), 10 Jan, 1941.

10 A.N., FIC III 1135 (Ain), 15 Nov. 1940, 3 Feb. 1941.

11 A.N., FIC III 1148 (Côte-d'Or), 20 Nov. 1940, 14 May 1941.

12 Miller, , Les pousse-au-jouir, pp. 20–2Google Scholar.

13 Meynier, André, Les Déplacements de la population vers la Bretagne en 1940–41 (Les Nourritures Terrestres, Rennes, 1950), p. 36Google Scholar.

14 Bertrand, Michel, ‘L'Exode juin 1940’, Bibliothèique du Travail n° 489, 1961Google Scholar.

15 Ibid.

16 Adrey, Georges, Journal d'un replié. 11 juin–26 juin 1940 (René Debresse, 1941), pp. 47–48Google Scholar.

17 Tharaud, Abel Renaultet Jérome, L'Exodemai-juin 1940 (Flammarion, 1944)Google Scholar, Préface.

18 Ibid. There are seventeen etchings, and the text is signed by both Jérome and Jean Tharaud.

19 Hire, Jean de la, Les horreurs que nous avons vues. Le crime des évacuations (Tallendrier, 1940), p. 20Google Scholar. He later published Hitler et nous (1942) and Mort aux Anglais. Vive la France (1942) .

20 Vidalenc, Jean, L'Exode de mai–juin 1940 (P.U.F., 1957), p. 1Google Scholar.

21 Cf. directive issued by the Prefect of the Côtes-du-Nord to the mayors of his department on 14 May 1940 which began, ‘L'Allemagne, après huit mois d'hésitations, s'est décidée à attaquer la FRANCE. L'effort de l'ennemi est forcené. II doit vaincre ou périr. Nous aussi. C'est pourquoi tout Français qui ne comprendrait pas son devoir s'excluerait lui-même de la grande famille française. II seraitimmédiatement traité comme il convient de traiter les traîtres à leur Pays.’ Document communicated to author by G. Le Marec.

22 Meynier, , Les Déplacemcnts, p. 98Google Scholar.

23 Author's interview, May 1969.

24 Dorgelès, Roland, Vacances forcées (Editions Vialetay, 1956), p. 29Google Scholar.

25 Alice Wisler, Je suis tine évacuée. Juin 1940 (n.d., n.l.).

26 Adrey, Georges, Journal d'un replié, p. 48Google Scholar.

27 Fournier, Christiane, L'Exode de trois parmi les autres (Editions de la N.R.I., VinhAnnam, 1942), pp. 82, 103, 123–4Google Scholar.

28 For the theme of ‘I' Exode’ as a holiday, see Cobb, R., Promenades (Oxford, 1980), ch. 6Google Scholar.

29 Baudoin, René, Camping, juin 1940 (Rodstein, 1940), p. 8Google Scholar.

30 Parant, J.-V., Le problème du tourisme populaire (Pichon et Durand-Auzias, 1939), p. 207Google Scholar.

31 Chavardès, Maurice, Elé 1936. La Victoiredu Front Populaire (Calmann-Lévy, 1966), p. 262Google Scholar.

32 Ibid.

33 Cribier, Françoise, La grande migration d' été des citadins de France (Paris, C.N.R.S., 1969), p. 46Google Scholar.

34 La Dépêche. See 22 June 1940, for Cahors and Montauban, and 23 June for Toulouse and Albi.

35 The main difficulty has already been mentioned, i.e. that many memoirs of the Exode were published under Vichy and may therefore be inadmissible evidence in the case being argued here. This cannot be denied, but at the same time no one doing oral research into the period, as well as reading memoirs and ephemera, can fail to be struck by the similarity of the language used by those who accepted Vichy and by those who opposed it, once they talk about the experience of the ‘Exode’.

36 Barrès, Maurice, Scènes et Doctrines du Nationalisme, i (Plon, 1925), p. 13Google Scholar.

37 I am greatly indebted to Professor John Renwick for permission to use this hand-written document which is in his possession and which he kindly brought to my attention. It was written between 8 and 11 July and is headed ‘Evacuations de la Guerre 1939–1940’. There is no indication of the author's political opinions, but his reaction to the armistice can be said to be typical of the vast majority of France at the time ‘…nous apprenons que la France est forcée de demander un armistice ce qui fait (quoique nous soyons vaincus) pousser un soupir de soulagement à tout le monde car c'est la fin de bien des tueries, de misère, et de souffrance.’

38 Dorgelès, , Vacances farcées, p. 30Google Scholar.

39 Gérard Miller has an excellent passage to make the point that the ‘Exode’ took people into the apparently unchanging world of rural France; but despite his brilliant choice of words he turns his conclusion away from further insights into the authenticity of this experience. ‘Ils fuient des territoires qui, de se montrer perméables à l'invasion, ne sont plus français bien avant d'étre occupés par les Allemands: qu'est-ce qu'une terre qui ne protége plus les siens? Les Français veulent se réfugier en France, et c'est ce dont le discours pétainiste saura leur donner l'illusion.’; (Miller, , Les-pousse-au-jouir, p. 21.Google Scholar)

40 Cf. Amouroux's much discussed title for the second volume of his Grande Histoire des Français sous I'Occupation, which he called Quarante Millions de Péainistes (Laffont, 1977)Google Scholar.

41 The blindness of Maurras to anything which could upset his ideological ‘victory’ of 1940 is evident in the doctrinaire élitism of La Seule France published in 1941 (Lardanchet, Lyon)Google Scholar.

42 Cf. Lafont, Robert, La Revendication occitane (Flammarion, 1974)Google Scholar. In his section on the war he points out that leading Occitanists sent a list of regional claims to Pétain in 1940. Marshal, , but he continues, ‘Cette démarche correspond à un choix idéologique antérieur pour quelque-uns des signataires …; pour d'autres …elle est purement conjoncturale’ (p. 253)Google Scholar.

43 Eluard, Paul. ‘Gabriel Péri’ (1941–1942)Google Scholar Péri, a leading Communist of the 1930s, was shot as a hostage late in 1941, in an act of German reprisal, abetted by the Service Spéciale of Vichy.

44 Vercors, , Le Silence de la Mer (Éditions de Minuit 1941–1942, published clandestinely)Google Scholar.

45 La France Libre (Hamish Hamilton, London, 15 12. 1942: supplement photographique)Google Scholar.

46 See, for example, La Frarue Nouvelle Travaille 1941 (Edition du Secrétariat Général de l'lnformation, s.d.).

47 A.N., FIC III 1193 (Tarn), 5 Nov. 1940; FIC III 1135 (Ain), 15 Nov. 1940. See also, FIC III 1163 (Lot), 1 March 1941; FIC III 1193 (Tarn), 30 Sept 1941; FIC III 1148 (Côte-d'Or), 4 Oct. 1941.

48 e.g. A.N., FIC III 1193 (Tarn), 31 Dec. 1941; FIC III 1148 (Côte-d'Or), 1 Oct.1942.

49 A.N., FIC III 1165 (Lozère), 5 Jan. 1943.

50 A.N., FIC III 1163 (Lot), 5 Dec. 1942.

51 A.N., FIC III 1148 (Côte-d'Or), 25 Aug. 1941.

52 Author's interview, April 1980.