FROM THE POPULAR FRONT TO THE EASTERN FRONT: YOUTH MOVEMENTS, TRAVEL, AND FASCISM IN FRANCE (1930-1945) by Bertrand Metton A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology and History) in the University of Michigan 2015 Doctoral Committee: Professor Ronald Suny, Chair Professor Joshua H. Cole Professor Geoff Eley Associate Professor Krisztina E. Fehervary © Bertrand Metton 2015 A ma mère, qui m’a toujours soutenu A mon père, qui m’a donné le goût de l’histoire ii Acknowledgements I am indebted to many in the completion of this dissertation, and in particular to the members of my dissertation committee and the academic community at the University of Michigan and beyond. From my first year in the Ph.D program, Ronald Suny provided me with constant support, guidance and intellectually challenging thoughts delivered with his inimitable wit. Through numerous and long conversations, Geoff Eley, armed with his encyclopedic knowledge of European history and expertise on the question of fascism, pushed me to develop an original intellectual framework which forms the backbone of this dissertation. The influence of Krisztina Fehervary’s teachings, particularly in the anthropology of the body and consumption, can be seen throughout the text and have played a crucial role in the theoretical articulation of this work. Finally Joshua Cole’s feedback and expertise on French history and the Popular Front has been invaluable and has helped me develop a more coherent narrative and general argument. Among other Michigan faculty whose mentorship played a decisive role in my intellectual upbringing I feel particularly indebted to David William Cohen whose infinite kindness and intellectual brilliance have guided me during my first years in the United States. Over the years I am grateful for having the opportunity to work with Michael Kennedy, Julie Skurski, Bill Rosenberg, Webb Keane, Janet Hart, Judy Irvine, Paul Johnson, Kathleen Canning, Damon Salesa, Kali Israel, Alf Luedtke, Francis iii Blouin, George Steinmetz, Julia Hell, Diane Hughes, Ulricke Weckel, and Martin Stary. In the history department, I would like to thank Lorna Alstetter, Kathleen King, and Diana Denney. Several professors played a crucial role in the years that preceded my arrival in Michigan. During my undergraduate studies in Toulouse I had the chance to work with Patrick Cabanel and Jean-Francois Berdah. At Charles University in Prague I benefitted form the support of Jan Richlik and Lud’a Klusakova. Special thanks to all the friends I made during my time in Michigan. To the Anthro-History gang: Davide Orsini, Shana Melnysyn, Bruno Rennero, Esteban “El Esteve” Rozo, and Chris Estrada, for the countless hours talking about music and other important things. To my fellows in the history department: Jack Merchant, David Schlitt, Ben Graham, Anthony Ross, Minayo Nasiali and Jeremy Ledger with whom I shared the pleasure to teach history for the first time. To Katya Mishuris, for the comradeship and the endless conversations about the psychoanalysis of history. To Maxime Foerster for his precious literary advice and friendship. To Pedro Monaville, my best running mate on cold December nights. To Ozan Jaquette for being a bro. To Candice Hamelin and Monique Johnson. To Hee-Eun Chung, my study mate. To Andrew Ciancia and Kathryn Ward. To George Smillie and Marysia Ostafin for opening their home to us. Many thanks to my friends beyond academic circles: Julien and Mathieu Viguié, Philippe Doré, Philippe Brouillac, David Neuman, Johann Thomas, Etienne Charié, Olivier Marmet, Nicolas Séré, Damian Clavel, Xavier Sentenac, Armand Maury, Nikolas Pottakis and Maia, Felizitas Schaub, Pauli Bauer, Carolina Conejero Padial, and Andraz Burazin. iv Finally, none of this would have been possible without the unfailing support of my family: my sisters, Astrid, Ingrid and Marie, my young brother Adrien who was born around the time I started my Ph.D and was a great source of inspiration. My grandparents, René and Henriette, Georges and Pierrette, with whom I often talked about life in France during the Second World War. To my parents who have supported me in different ways but have been oddly complementary, my father Gilbert, was instrumental in developping my passion for knowledge in general and history in particular. My mother, Genevieve and her husband Jean-Francois always supported me in ways that cannot be accounted for. Finally to my wife Shiren, whom I met at Michigan and has accompanied me all these years: I cannot imagine myself finishing this work without your love, patience, and dedication. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures vii Introduction 1 Chapter One: Looking Across the Rhine: The French Youth Hostel 25 Movement’s Early Years (1929-1936) Chapter Two: The Republic of Youth: The French Popular Front 93 and the Youth Hostels (1936-1940) Chapter Three: Walking in Hitler’s Shadow: Fascism, Economic 168 Organization and the European Question in France (1922-1944) Chapter Four: Political Conversion and European Fascism: Marc 214 Augier and the JEN Chapter Five: The European Idea and the Atlantic Wall: On Spatial 261 Theory and the Emergence of a Wartime Fascist Worldview Conclusion: Europe, Fascism, and the War Machine 312 Bibliography 326 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Richard Schirrmann on a field trip near Altena 1911 38 Figure 2: Frankfurt am Main Youth Hostel Postcard early1930s 39 Figure 3: Congress of the Democratic International in Bierville 1926 42 Figure 4: Bau Blatter Magazine Insert February 1930 54 Figure 5: Types of Youth Hostels in "Die Jugenherberge" September 1930 59 Figure 6: Pictures from German Youth Hostellers October 1930 62 Figure 7: CLAJ sign and Youth Hostellers circa 1936 68 Figure 8: Le Cri des Auberges de Jeunesse Cover June 1936 71 Figure 9: Auberge du Genet d'Or, Hossegor 1934 79 Figure 10: CLAJ Postcard: Youth Hostel in Bedous, Western Pyrenees, 1936 92 Figure 11: Léo Lagrange in his ministerial office, 1936 95 Figure 12: Léon Blum (SFIO) and Maurice Thorez (PCF), July 14 1936 105 Figure 13: Showering at the Hostel in Villeneuve sur Auvers, 1937 116 Figure 14: Léo Lagrange among Ajistes in Villeneuve-sur-Auvers, 1938 125 Figure 15: Male and Female Ajiste Style in 1937 131 Figure 16: Le Cri des Auberges March 1938 Cover 138 Figure 17: Kellerman Avenue Youth Hostel Paris 1937 141 Figure 18: Map of the CLAJ hostels in the Cevennes Region 147 Figure 19: Cover of the CLAJ Travel Guide 1938 150 Figure 20: Tangiers Youth Hostel in 1938 159 vii Figure 21: Map of Algerian Youth Hostels 161 Figure 22: Map of the CLAJ Hostels in Morocco 163 Figure 23: Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, Robert Brasillach, and Abel Bonnard 177 Figure 24: Alphonse de Chateaubriant and Marcel Déat in Paris 192 Figure 25: Europe Nouvelle Exhibition, August 1941 195 Figure 26: L'Europe d'Hier et de Demain 212 Figure 27: Pétain and the Chantiers de la Jeunesse Postcard 222 Figure 28: De Thuisy and Augier in Lapland 1939 236 Figure 29: Marc Augier in the USSR, 1942 248 Figure 30: Strasburg Games Poster, July 1942 253 Figure 31: Jeune Force de France Cover July-August 1944 258 Figure 32: Ernst Junger and Carl Schmitt in Paris, 1943 269 Figure 33: "Total War - Shorter War" Berlin Sport Palace 286 Figure 34: "The Meaning of History" Das Schwarze Korps 289 Figure 35: "Europe like This or like That" Signal, June 1944 292 Figure 36: "Voici l'Europe" Signal, June 1944 293 Figure 37: “Barbara” Firing Tower in Tarnos 298 Figure 38: Atlantic Wall Casemate Model 301 Figure 39: "Floating" Bunkers in Wissant, Northern France 306 Figure 40: Saint-Loup's map of Ethnic Europe 324 viii Introduction “We judge revolutions to be admirable or hateful according as their principles are or are not our own. All of them, however, have one supreme virtue that is inseparable from the vigor out of which they grow: they do trust the young into positions of prominence. I detest Nazism, but, like the French Revolution, with which one should blush to compare it, it did put at the head, both of its armed forces and of its Government, men who, because their brains were fresh and had not been formed in the routine of the schools, were capable of understanding the surprising and the new. All we had to set against them was a set of bald-pates and youngish dotards.” Marc Bloch1 There is no straight line leading from the French Popular Front to the Eastern Front and Hitler’s armies. Yet, quite a few Frenchmen followed such a crooked path that led them from one the 20th century’s great democratic movements to its most exclusionary and destructive ideology. Seeking to uncover the apparent contradictions that frame this political itinerary, my dissertation looks at the interwar youth hostel movement, a pacifist and left-leaning organization and the drift of some of its members towards Europeanist fascism during the Second World War. Modeled after a Catholic youth movement that emerged from Germany in the aftermath of the Great War,2 the French youth hostel first appeared in the country in 1929 as a Catholic organization, but found its most successful expression in the CLAJ (Secular Youth Hostel Center), a left- wing and secular organization created in 1933 under the patronage of a number of left- 1 Marc Bloch. Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940. New York, 1968 (1946) 2 Graham Heath. Richard Schirrman: The First Youth Hosteller. Detmold, 1965 1 wing organizations and political parties.3 The rise to power of the Popular