Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II Volume 16 Article 12 2011 Reclaiming Identity: Finding One’s Place as a French Jew in the Post World War II Period Kathleen O’Rourke Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.scu.edu/historical-perspectives Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation O’Rourke, Kathleen (2011) "Reclaiming Identity: Finding One’s Place as a French Jew in the Post World War II Period," Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II: Vol. 16 , Article 12. Available at: http://scholarcommons.scu.edu/historical-perspectives/vol16/iss1/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. O’Rourke: Reclaiming Identity 102 Historical Perspectives May 2011 Reclaiming Identity 103 Reclaiming Identity: Finding One’s Place In the immediate post war period, the French people- both non-Jews and Jews who had either as a French Jew in the Post World War remained in France or returned after the war- were left II Period to deal with the consequences of Vichy. French Jews were placed in a complicated situation; the seemingly Kathleen O’Rourke competing ideas of nationality and religion left postwar Jews trying to re-discover their place in the nation. As Fifty years after the end of WWII, French President for the rest of the French people, rather than confront- Jacques Chirac said, “There are moments in the life of ing the actions of the recent past, they denied and a nation that hurt the memory and the idea one has of revised history. The French identity as a country of his country.”1 President Chirac made this statement freedom and liberty directly conflicted with the actions at the 1995 commemoration of the July 1942 of Vichy France during the Holocaust; as a result the Velodrome d’Hiver roundup of Jews in Paris, one of the French chose to ignore the past, leaving the French many instances of the violent mistreatment of Jews Jews to grapple with the relationship of their religion under France’s Vichy Regime during the Holocaust. and nationality in the wake of WWII. On June 22, 1940, when France surrendered to Nazi The complexities surrounding the French relation- Germany, the Third Republic was dissolved and the ship with the Jews were not unique to the post-World collaborationist Vichy Regime was set up by Marshal War II period. Historically, the French have been Henri Petain. From the outset, Vichy pursued anti- engaged in a battle to maintain “purity” in their Semitic policies, such as the October 1940 “Statute on identity. Purity, meaning, that one had to give up all Jews” which forced racial segregation, making Jews a other identities (religious, political, ethnic, social, etc.) lower class. There was a noted difference in Vichy’s in order to completely embrace the French identity. attitude toward French Jews and Jewish refugees in That is why the difference between French Jews and France. During the 1930’s thousands of Jews from refugee Jews was so important. The French were Eastern Europe fled to France, seeing it as a safe willing to accept outsiders as their own if they com- harbor due to its professed republican ideals. When pletely assimilated. It is this secular, singular under- Vichy instigated policies against the Jews, they tar- standing of citizenship that unifies all French people. geted refugee Jews before French Jews. This collective French identity has been a continuous theme throughout French history, and can be seen clearly during, and after, World War II. Their need for preservation of identity was what allowed the French to ignore their wartime faults, and allow the creation of a postwar myth that portrayed the French nation as Published by Scholar Commons, 2011 1 Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II, Vol. 16 [2011], Art. 12 102 Historical Perspectives May 2011 Reclaiming Identity 103 Reclaiming Identity: Finding One’s Place In the immediate post war period, the French people- both non-Jews and Jews who had either as a French Jew in the Post World War remained in France or returned after the war- were left II Period to deal with the consequences of Vichy. French Jews were placed in a complicated situation; the seemingly Kathleen O’Rourke competing ideas of nationality and religion left postwar Jews trying to re-discover their place in the nation. As Fifty years after the end of WWII, French President for the rest of the French people, rather than confront- Jacques Chirac said, “There are moments in the life of ing the actions of the recent past, they denied and a nation that hurt the memory and the idea one has of revised history. The French identity as a country of his country.”1 President Chirac made this statement freedom and liberty directly conflicted with the actions at the 1995 commemoration of the July 1942 of Vichy France during the Holocaust; as a result the Velodrome d’Hiver roundup of Jews in Paris, one of the French chose to ignore the past, leaving the French many instances of the violent mistreatment of Jews Jews to grapple with the relationship of their religion under France’s Vichy Regime during the Holocaust. and nationality in the wake of WWII. On June 22, 1940, when France surrendered to Nazi The complexities surrounding the French relation- Germany, the Third Republic was dissolved and the ship with the Jews were not unique to the post-World collaborationist Vichy Regime was set up by Marshal War II period. Historically, the French have been Henri Petain. From the outset, Vichy pursued anti- engaged in a battle to maintain “purity” in their Semitic policies, such as the October 1940 “Statute on identity. Purity, meaning, that one had to give up all Jews” which forced racial segregation, making Jews a other identities (religious, political, ethnic, social, etc.) lower class. There was a noted difference in Vichy’s in order to completely embrace the French identity. attitude toward French Jews and Jewish refugees in That is why the difference between French Jews and France. During the 1930’s thousands of Jews from refugee Jews was so important. The French were Eastern Europe fled to France, seeing it as a safe willing to accept outsiders as their own if they com- harbor due to its professed republican ideals. When pletely assimilated. It is this secular, singular under- Vichy instigated policies against the Jews, they tar- standing of citizenship that unifies all French people. geted refugee Jews before French Jews. This collective French identity has been a continuous theme throughout French history, and can be seen clearly during, and after, World War II. Their need for preservation of identity was what allowed the French to ignore their wartime faults, and allow the creation of a postwar myth that portrayed the French nation as http://scholarcommons.scu.edu/historical-perspectives/vol16/iss1/12 2 O’Rourke: Reclaiming Identity 104 Historical Perspectives May 2011 Reclaiming Identity 105 victims, much to the expense of the Jews throughout Germans until they, the Germans, decided to imple- the nation. ment their Final Solution in France in 1942. There are many aspects of the problem of French While Paxton and Marrus focus on the events that national memory and the memory of French Jews occurred under Vichy rule, other scholars have sought following World War II. The relationship between to understand the complexities that the regime left for Vichy France and the Jews during the war may be the psyche of the French nation, complexities that viewed as grounded in the long held anti-Semitic views continued to plague the nation long after the war of French citizens who assisted the Vichy regime with ended. In his book, The Vichy Syndrome, leading their anti-Semitic policies. Robert Paxton and Michael scholar Henry Rousso explains that the events under Marrus, in Vichy and the Jews, analyze the openly Vichy continued to live on until the French were able anti-Semitic views of the French who were a part of the to come to terms with their past.4 Rousso asserts that Vichy regime, and the support of many ordinary after the war, acknowledging the actions of the Vichy French citizens.2 Paxton and Marrus note that while government was more difficult for the French people France was the first European nation to grant the than coming to terms with the Occupation itself. This Jews full civil rights at the end of the Eighteenth problem creates a conflict between the areas of mem- century, French people were also the most ardent ory and history. Rousso confronts this challenge by supporters of secular anti-Semitism at the end of the looking at the stages of the postwar myth as they Nineteenth century. These complexities are part of unfolded chronologically, and how each was addressed the reason that Vichy policy towards the Jews was by the nation. He called the first stage from 1945- successful; the mindset of anti-Semitism did not arrive 1953 the Unfinished Mourning. During this time, the with the Germans, rather, it was already common in French people sought revenge in the case of collabora- France. The actions of the Vichy regime could not have tors, while ignoring Vichy’s anti-Semitism. There was been carried through without some level of consent also a distinct tension between glorifying the Resis- from the people.