Edinburgh Research Explorer Country Report Citation for published version: Mihai, M 2020 'Country Report: France'. Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Other version General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact
[email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 Country Report: France Mihaela Mihai The Official Story France was partially and then fully occupied by Germany between 1940 – 1944. Several forms of complicity and resistance emerged, at the intersection of multiple, overlapping structures that influenced people’s complex positions in relation to the Occupier, positions that were neither static nor reducible to one single identity vector. Complex ideological legacies and commitments that preceded the war, gender, class, religion, the opacity of the future, severe economic hardships as well as ambivalent views of the occupier – all contributed to a heterogeneous and perpetually shifting spectrum of involvement. After the Liberation, beyond the main figures of the Vichy regime, the difficulty of deciding who was a victim and who was a collaborator raised extreme difficulties for the government, especially given the moralist indignation many indulged in.