John Hellman. The Knight-Monks of Vichy France: Uriage, 1940-1945. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997. xxii + 326 pp. $85.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7735-0973-3.
Reviewed by Robert D. Zaretsky
Published on H-France (June, 1998)
Although it lasted just four years, the Vichy Coincidentally, the Vichy specialist's equiva‐ regime has proven to be, as the title of a recent lent to the Guide for the Perplexed has just cele‐ book by Henry Rousso and Eric Conan reminds brated its twenty-ffth anniversary. Robert Pax‐ us, "un passe qui ne passe pas." The current trial ton's Vichy France remains the standard work in of Maurice Papon, accused of complicity in crimes the feld of Vichy historiography: an enduring au‐ against humanity while serving as secretary gen‐ thority refected in Paxton's role as expert witness eral of the prefecture of the Gironde, is the latest at the Papon trial, as well as a symposium held reminder of the enduring impact of this period. this September at Columbia University to cele‐ The issue of justice, already terribly complex due brate the work and the man. One of the book's to the nature of the crime and the half century many merits is its emphasis upon certain ideologi‐ that has since passed, has competed with the tat‐ cal, institutional, and administrative continuities tered, yet resilient, myths of Vichy. When the sec‐ which tied Vichy to both pre- and postwar France. retary of the Academie francaise, Maurice Druon, This was a theme pursued by a number of the condemns the trial as benefting only Germany; symposium's participants, including John Hell‐ when the leader of the Gaullist party, Philippe man, professor of history at McGill University. Seguin, erupts that it is Gaullism and its epony‐ Hellman's topic was "communitarian non-con‐ mous founder who are the actual targets of the formism"--an interwar movement with roots in trial; when the current president of the Republic, the resurgence of Catholic thought and activity Jacques Chirac, fnds himself assailed by the polit‐ which tried to tack a "third way" between the ical left and right for insisting upon the responsi‐ shoals of communism and capitalism. The non‐ bility of the French state in the deportation of conformists privileged non-conformist ideals such Jews from French soil to Auschwitz, the non-spe‐ as anti-individualism, elitism, Europeanism, and cialist is understandably perplexed. expressed a certain disdain for democratic and re‐ publican practices and institutions. H-Net Reviews
The paper was engaging, combative, shrewd, Jean Lacroix--were formed in the Ecole nationale and provocative (and occasionally a bit ram‐ de cadres. It is the story of this singular experi‐ bling)--the same qualities to be found in Hellman's ment which Hellman so ably recounts and ana‐ The Knight-Monks of Vichy France: Uriage, lyzes. 1940-1945. The second edition of the book has just The experiment was, in a narrow sense, been reissued by McGill-Queen's University Press aborted: the school was established in late 1940 (the frst edition was published in 1993) and in‐ and was efectively shut down by the Vichy au‐ cludes a new preface and a new fnal chapter thorities two years later. But despite its short life, which reveals the ties that bind Francois Mit‐ the school's story is not quickly told--in part be‐ terand, Paul Touvier, and Jean Moulin--a trio cause it is steeped in several currents of French seeming to have little in common--to what Rousso, intellectual history, in part because the characters in another book, has called "the Vichy syndrome": involved are so colorful and complex, and in part namely, the ways in which the French have mythi‐ because the events tend to swing from the tragic cized, denied, politicized, and only recently ana‐ to opera boufe. The central fgure, around whom lyzed this chapter in their nation's history. Before these individuals and events swirled, was Pierre discussing the contents and issues raised by this Dunoyer de Segonzac. Born into a traditionalist chapter, it is frst necessary to recapitulate the ar‐ Catholic family, Dunoyer de Segonzac was raised gument of the earlier work. in a milieu which scorned material and worldly Hellman contends that an important number success and cultivated the values of authority, loy‐ of interwar French intellectuals--a number far alty and discipline. He eventually became an greater than most historians have assumed--culti‐ army ofcer (taking a particular interest in tank vated and disseminated an anti-liberal and anti- warfare), frequented a number of lay and reli‐ democratic agenda. This agenda was nourished, gious Catholic circles, and was a great admirer of in large measure, by the Catholic intellectual re‐ Marshal Louis Hubert Lyautey. In many of these naissance of the early twentieth century, embod‐ respects, his career--as Hellman points out--re‐ ied in writers like Charles Peguy, Georges sembles Charles de Gaulle's. Bernanos, Leon Bloy, and Emmanuel Mounier. In the wake of France's defeat, Dunoyer de Very simply, these thinkers were fundamentally Segonzac aligned himself to the new regime led sceptical about the powers of reason, the benefts by Marshal Philippe Petain, to whom he would of industrial capitalism, the viability of individu‐ lend unwavering loyalty for the next three years. alism, and the desirability of modern democracy. He developed the idea of an ecole des chefs (lead‐ A generation of young and mostly Catholic men-- ership school), largely inspired by the model of so‐ women rarely played signifcant roles in this cial service proposed by Lyautey, and was named male-dominated world, and Protestants and Jews to create and administer such an establishment. were, of course, equally rarissime--fell under the Although its original charter was quite modest--to spell of this communitarian, mystical, and almost train the leaders for the youth work-sites being inevitably reactionary and authoritarian world created by Vichy, and whose purpose was to both view. They, in turn, both refected and helped in‐ form and control the young French men who fuence the ideological underpinnings of the so- could no longer serve in a reduced army--the called National Revolution--the name given by the school's ambitions were much greater. By the end men of Vichy to their political enterprise. The of 1940, the school's purpose was to train an elite "best and the brightest" of this generation--a of leaders for a France transformed according to group that includes such postwar intellectuals like the criteria of the National Revolution. As Hell‐ Hubert Beuve-Mery, Jean-Marie Domenach, and
2 H-Net Reviews man writes, by late 1940 "the school began to self- It was only with the radicalization of Vichy, consciously take on the role of avant-garde labo‐ marked by the return of Pierre Laval to power ratory for the National Revolution" (p. 32). and the occupation of southern France by the Ger‐ Dunoyer de Segonzac succeeded in housing mans in late 1942, that Uriage turns against the the school at the Chateau Bayard, a massive me‐ regime. But they would not yet question the per‐ dieval pile overlooking the Alpine village of son of Petain: convinced that the Marshal had be‐ Uriage. As Hellman emphasizes, the setting was come the efective prisoner of the collaborationist ideal for a community steeped in a mystical world wing, the men of Uriage resisted on his behalf view harkening to an idealized medieval past-- (this was far from unique among the early re‐ where men were knights, women were women sisters; the best known example is probably Henri and all children were above average (if born into Frenay, the founder of the movement Combat, the right community and properly educated). One who was both an ardent Petainism and a resis‐ of the favorite teachers at Bayard, the professor of tant). But as Hellman observes, this was a "spiritu‐ law Jean-Jacques Chevallier, asserted that the pur‐ al tightrope act that could not go on forever" (p. pose of Uriage was to form a new kind of man, 170). Ultimately, the school was shut down in De‐ one that right-thinking women would welcome, cember 1942 and was turned over to the Milice, because "if she is not spoiled by false ideas, con‐ the collaborationist and paramilitary organization ventions, or snobbishness, what she wants of a commanded by Joseph Darnand. man, frst of all, is to be a man. And the more and As for the men of Uriage, they regrouped, the better she is a woman, the more she harbors baptized themselves as an Order, and prepared contempt for the womanish man. In that she is for the Resistance. But the preparation did not re‐ more than correct" (p. 49). quire a knowledge of explosives or machine guns: Though Hellman cannot resist arching his "Rather than fghting for liberal or democratic eyebrows from time to time, he takes all of this values in an oppressive situation, the men of talk quite seriously--and this is one of the book's Segonzac's circle were preoccupied with promot‐ most important and controversial qualities. As he ing spiritual values in tightly disciplined, hierar‐ argues, Dunoyer de Segonzac and his disciples chical communities such as their Order" (p. 195). created and refected a Vichy which "might have Hellman here shows some irritation with his sub‐ been"--one frmly constructed on an authoritari‐ jects, who were less concerned with booting the an, hierarchical, Catholic, and traditionalist foun‐ Germans out of France than dilating on the world dation. United in a common hatred of all the ills according to the right-wing intellectuals Mounier, associated with modernity, these men were soon Teilhard de Chardin, and Peguy. Not surprisingly, referred to as the "moines chevaliers" (knight- this impatience was shared by a number of resis‐ monks). They energetically assumed the role, se‐ tance fghters, who, in the words of one represen‐ cure in the belief that they constituted an elite tative, would have "infnitely preferred sweaters which would save France. But save the country or pants" to the personalist and elitist discourses from what and who? Although no love was lost ofered by these squads. While others welcomed for the German occupiers, the men of Uriage gave the Order, Hellman insists upon the narrow basis the impression that France was as much threat‐ for their engagement in the Resistance: these ened by the evils of modern liberalism, capital‐ groups "served as a center for preserving, and ism, and individualism as it was by those of the further advancing, an anti-liberal and anti-repub‐ Nazi occupation and totalitarianism. lican, an all-transforming, French personalist and spiritual community that had been sketched out
3 H-Net Reviews under the gigantic portrait of the Marshal in the make sense of a political career which has long lecture hall of the Chateau Bayard" (p. 205). puzzled observers--namely, an itinerary that be‐ Hellman takes the story through the Allied gan on the extreme right during the interwar pe‐ landing in 1944, the eventual incorporation of the riod, passed through Vichy before entering the Re‐ knight-monks into the ranks of the Resistance and sistance, and concluded with the leadership of a the Forces francaises de l'interieur (despite de recreated socialist party and an entire nation. If, Gaulle's dislike for Dunoyer de Segonzac), and the as Hellman argues, one focuses upon Mitterand's many instances of courage and heroism shown by early engagement in Catholic activism--which these men. Especially striking is the episode in privileged the same bundle of values identifed which Segonzac confronts the commander of a with Uriage--the logic of his political career be‐ German armored detachment and ofers him comes clearer. His membership in the extreme terms of surrender as if he were a character from right wing movement Croix de feu, the attachment a medieval romance or the French ofcer in to Petain and his work for prisoners of war on be‐ Renoir's La Grande illusion. The reader--and, one half of Vichy (which notoriously earned him the suspects, Hellman himself--is torn between admi‐ Vichy award of the francisque), the obstinate post‐ ration and exasperation (so well summed up by war friendship with the former prefect of the po‐ Beuve-Mery's remark: Quelle connerie!) at Segon‐ lice in Paris, Rene Bousquet (only revealed at the zac's obstinate attachment to an outmoded code end of Mitterand's life), all follow, Hellman ar‐ of chivalry. gues, in a direct line from his youthful attraction to Catholic traditionalism. As he asserts, "Mit‐ In the end, however, Hellman refuses to ig‐ terand did not change friends or ideas, much less nore or relativize the intellectual sources of their dramatically 'break' with his past, as did resisters engagement. Little wonder that his work has such as de Gaulle" (p. 244). caused the gnashing of teeth among the survivors and their descendants (he himself notes the run- One might reply that Hellman commits a ins he has had with these individuals at various common sin of historians of ideas--namely, at‐ conferences). This stubborn emphasis upon the tributing intellectual motivation to actions which nature of the Uriage ethos is salutary. Not only can be explained in other and less creditable does it remind us that a number of ideological ways. Is it possible that he gives too much credit paths could and did lead to the Resistance (a to a man who, at least in the eyes of de Gaulle, movement itself which made for strange bedfel‐ was an arsouille (a thug) who had no ideals and lows), but that such resistance could be, and was, was driven uniquely by the desire for power? no less motivated by the perceived menace from Alain Peyreftte's just-published second volume of the west and American civilization than the threat memoirs concerning his relationship with the posed by the totalitarianisms to the east. More‐ General, C'etait de Gaulle, is very revealing on over, Hellman traces the postwar itinerary of this topic. Or is it conceivable that, as befts an in‐ those intellectuals and institutions (from Esprit to dividual who named his natural daughter Editions du Seuil to the Ecole normale Mazarine, Mitterand simply enjoyed the Byzan‐ d'administration to Le Monde) issuing from the tine play of politics? The questions concerning the Uriage mould, thus deepening our appreciation motivations of this complex individual will be de‐ for the long-standing difdence felt by the non- bated for a long time. But thanks to this work of communist French left toward the United States. careful and passionate scholarship, the intensity and quality of the debate have been heightened. Finally, as the newly-added fnal chapter on Mitterand suggests, the Uriage experience helps
4 H-Net Reviews
Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at http://www.uakron.edu/hfrance/
Citation: Robert D. Zaretsky. Review of Hellman, John. The Knight-Monks of Vichy France: Uriage, 1940-1945. H-France, H-Net Reviews. June, 1998.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2082
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
5