Jewish Youth and Identity in Postwar France: Rebuilding Family and Nation

330 Pages·2015·4.837 MB·English

by  Daniella Doron

JEWISH YOUTH
IDENTITY

and
Postwar France
in
The Modern Jewish Experience
Deborah Dash Moore and Marsha L. Rozenblit, editors
Paula Hyman, founding coeditor
JEWISH YOUTH
IDENTITY

and
Postwar France
in
Rebuilding Family and Nation
DANIELLA DORON
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of Manufactured in the
United States of America
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing Library of Congress
Herman B Wells Library 350 Cataloging-in-Publication Data
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA Doron, Daniella, author.
Jewish youth and identity in
iupress.indiana.edu postwar France : rebuilding family
and nation / Daniella Doron.
© 2015 by Daniella Doron pages cm — (The Modern
All rights reserved Jewish experience)
Includes bibliographical
No part of this book may be reproduced references and index.
or utilized in any form or by any means, ISBN 978-0-253-01741-3 (cloth : alk.
electronic or mechanical, including photo- paper)—ISBN 978-0-253-01746-8 (ebook)
copying and recording, or by any informa- 1. Jewish youth—France—History—20th
tion storage and retrieval system, without century. 2. Jewish children—France—
permission in writing from the publisher. History—20th century. 3. Jewish youth—
The Association of American University France—Social conditions—20th century.
Presses’ Resolution on Permissions 4. Jewish children—France—Social
constitutes the only exception to this conditions—20th century. 5. France—
prohibition. Civilization—1945– 6. France—Social
conditions—1945–1995. I. Title.
The paper used in this publication meets the DS135.F83D64 2015
minimum requirements of the American 305.235089'92404409045—dc23
National Standard for Information Sciences 2015017064
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992. 1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
to my parents
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 “Their Children? Our Children!”
Holocaust Memory in Postwar France 31
2 “A Drama of Faith and Family”:
Custody Disputes in Postwar France 74
3 Notre Vie en Commune:
The Family versus the Children’s Home 118
4 The Homes of Hope?
Trauma, Universal Victimhood, and Universalism 162
5 F rom Competition to Cooperation:
Redefining Jewish Identities 198
Conclusion 233
Notes 241
Works Cited 285
Index 299
vii
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to thank the many people who
have left their imprint, in multiple ways, on this work and my life.
Words fall short in expressing my deep gratitude to Marion Kaplan, first
my doctoral adviser and now my dear friend, for her care, her time, and her
rigorous scholarly example. The thousands of e-mails exchanged over the
years, coffee dates on the Upper West Side, and our independent study meet-
ings conducted over coffee and a shared black-and-white cookie mark some
of my fondest memories of graduate school. Her comments on my work have
forced me to refine my writing and thinking; her own scholarship has kindled
my initial interest in the field and continues to serve as a source of inspira-
tion. As my career has taken me further away from New York than either of
us would have ever imagined, Skype dates have replaced coffee dates, and she
has remained my first port of call for advice and good cheer. For all of this,
Marion will forever have my gratitude, admiration, and lasting friendship.
I consider myself tremendously fortunate to have found such a nurturing
environment at New York University. Herrick Chapman and Mary Nolan
generously read more drafts than they would probably care to remember, and
their comments have sharpened the analytical focus of this study. The more I
progress in my career, the more fully I appreciate their commitment to men-
toring graduate students and the scholarly erudition they display in their own
work. I first met Laura Lee Downs in a setting quite far away from Greenwich
Village—in the cafes and archives of Paris. Her seminar at the EHESS on
“children and war,” our many conversations (both scholarly and otherwise)
over wine in Paris and New York, as well her incisive comments have made
the research and the writing of this study far more pleasant and intellectu-
ix