One of the best specialists of the Vichy regime, Laurent Joly, offers a
remarkable perspective on the history of the history of deportation inFrance. He shows how the historiography of the Vichy regime and its
participation in the extermination of the Jews was built across four
major periods. First, between 1945 and 1951, witnesses and victims,
often alone, accumulated memories, documentation and archives to offer
an initial global vision. Its humanists. Georges Wellers, Joseph Billig,
Léon Poliakov, part of whose family was murdered, allowed the emergence
of research by founding the Centre de documentation juive contemporaine.
They published their first studies, which remain references, and also
launched an academic research journal, Le Monde juif. At the same time,
"Pétainophilia" has never stopped in France, since the trial of the
Marshal in 1945. The latter has always presented himself as a victim,
his responsibility in the deportations has never really been accepted by
his thurifers. The phenomenon became more important in the 1950s,
authors such as Robert Aron or Henri Amouroux published works defending
the shield theory while De Gaulle would have represented the sword
defending France. In addition, although marginal, the first wave of
negationists also appeared at this time (Bardèche, Rassinier).
Historians continued to work, helped by a young generation often from
America (like Robert Paxton or Michaël Marrus).
Popularization and sometimes research work clarified knowledge, such as
Claude Levy's work on the Veld'hiv roundup. The theory of Vichy's
collaboration and responsibility in the genocide took hold and became
consensual. The last time described is what the author calls "the
Klarsfeld moment", from which he distinguishes the research work and
current positions, which are essential references: The Deportation
Memorial and Vichy Auschwitz. His work and that of other historians
allow and accompany the official recognition of the responsibility of
the French State and the French police led by the Vichy regime. To the
point that today, with some exceptions, the theme should no longer be
debated. Alexandre Doulot's work is proof of this.
It is indeed a veritable sum that completes Klarsfeld's work. He
analyzed the files of the 74,070 Jews deported from France and proposes
a renewal that is both quantitative and sociological of the Nazi policy
of extermination. While several elements may seem secondary, this work
clarifies a certain number of points.
First element, he underlines that the Jewish population in France
represents 267,000 and not 300,000 people, that is, 28% of them and not
25% were deported. Of the 74,070 deportees whose names could be
identified, 4,000 survived. These deportees are mostly men (41,770). He
effectively puts an end to any debate 16% of them are French Jews
(including many children) while showing that after the Veld'hiv roundup,
the Vichy authorities were reluctant to carry out roundups against
French Jews while continuing to hunt down foreign Jews. He underlines
that the majority of them were in the Paris region. Indeed, more than
40,000 of them were deported, out of approximately 150,000 Jews living
in the northern zone. He also returns to the places of internment, first
Pithiviers and Beaune la Rolande before Drancy became the main center of
departures to the extermination camps. After the Veld'hiv, the roundups
affected "target audiences" by nationality (Romanians, Bulgarians,
Greeks, Argentinians, etc.). The roundup was not the only means of
deportation. A significant proportion of Jews were deported following
individual arrests - between 37% and 42% in the occupied zone and 57% in
the free zone. He also shows the regional diversity of racial policy, as
in the Nancy region, while the other regions actively participated in
the policy of arrest and internment.
La vie devant moi illustrates the difficulties of survival in the Paris
region. The book is the synopsis of the eponymous film by Nils
Tavernier. Guy Birenbaum tells the story of his mother Tauba and his
grandparents, Rywka and Moshé, who during the entire war lived hidden in
a maid's room at 209 rue Saint-Maur (1), owned by a family of
conservative Catholics, who saved them. Paris, July 1942, the family
learns of the roundups, hides for several days in a first apartment
before finding asylum in the small room. Daily story of a 3-year
confinement to survive. The family must learn to live three in a 6
square meter room. The film, like the book, describes a closed-door
situation with the anxieties of everyday life, moments of joy,
clandestine visits. A story of solidarity and finally a return to life.
If Tuba Zylberstejn's family had a happy ending, being able to recover
their apartment, which had nevertheless been completely looted, by
forcing the owner to re-let it. This was not the case for many families
of survivors, as Isabelle Bakouche, Sarah Gensburger and Éric Le Bourhis
masterfully show. From 1941 onwards, Parisian Jews were gradually driven
out of their apartments. The objective of the Vichy authorities and the
occupiers was to house only the non-Jewish Parisian population and to
deliver the Jews to the vindictiveness of insidiously accusing them of
being responsible for the misfortunes of Parisians. The legal arsenal
allowed the owner to break rental contracts, the authorities
requisitioned the housing either to pass it on to Parisians or to have
it occupied by collaborationist organizations. An unknown and
large-scale dispossession, at the Liberation the survivors discovered
that their apartment had been requisitioned and occupied. They tried to
get them back, sometimes by filing lawsuits, sometimes by trying to
negotiate. The reactions of the population show that the anti-Semitism
in vogue under Pétain had not disappeared, quite the contrary. The
majority of the former tenants could not return to the place they had
lived in before the war, like another posthumous victory of Nazism.
* Laurent Joly.
Le Savoir des victimes.
Grasset 2025 446 p. EUR25
* Alexandre Doulut
The deportation of the Jews of France
Changement d'échelle
CNRS éditions 2025 484 p. EUR28
* La vie devant moi
Guy Birenbaum
Flammarion 2025 188 p. 21 EUR
* Show apartments
The dispossession of Jewish tenants in Paris 1940 - 1946
Isabelle Backouche, Sarah Gensburger, Éric Le Bourhis
La Découverte 2025 444 p. 24 EUR
Notes:
(1) Ruth Zylberman, Les Enfants du 209 rue Saint-Maur, Arte, 2018 whose
synopsis was also published in book form (Seuil 2020)
https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8237
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