Vichy's afterlife: history and counterhistory in postwar France

247 Pages·2000·0.84 MB·English

by  Richard Joseph Golsan

Vichy’s Afterlife
Vichy’s
History
and
Counterhistory
in
Postwar
France
Afterlife
Richard J. Golsan
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln & London
Acknowledgments for the use of
previously published material appear
on pages x–xi.
∫ 2000 by the University of Nebraska Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
!
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Golsan, Richard Joseph, 1952–
Vichy’s afterlife : history and counterhistory in postwar
France / by Richard J. Golsan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8032-7094-1 (pa: alk. paper)
1. France—History—German occupation, 1940–
1945—Historiography. 2. Vichy (France)—Politics
and government—Moral and ethical aspects.
3. Historians—France—Attitudes. 4. War crime
trials—France—Public opinion. 5. Public opinion—
France. I. Title.
dc397 .g59 2000
944%.597—dc21 00-024203
N
This book is dedicated with love
to my mother, Lucy Broyles Golsan,
and to the memory of my grandmother,
Mary Jones Broyles

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction:
The Body in the Basement 1
1 Memory and Justice Abused:
The 1949 Trial of René Bousquet 24
2 History as Counterhistory:
Modiano and the Occupation 43
3 Collaboration and Context:
Louis Malle’s Lacombe Lucien and the Mode Rétro 57
4 Revising The Sorrow and the Pity:
Marcel Ophuls’s Hotel Terminus 73
5 The Trial of Paul Touvier:
The Law Revises History 88
6 Mitterrand’s Dark Years:
A President’s ‘‘French Youth’’ 103
7 Denying the Holocaust in France:
The Past and Present of an Illusion 124
8 From Vichy to Sarajevo:
French Intellectuals and the Balkan Conflict 143
9 Memory’s Time Bombs:
The Trial of Maurice Papon and the Algerian War 156
Conclusion:
The End of the A√air? 181
Notes 185
Selected Bibliography 207
Index 219

Acknowledgments
I have been interested in the history and memory of Vichy
for many years, and it has been my great pleasure during that time to
share that interest with a number of friends and colleagues, all of
whom have taught me a great deal and have generously o√ered their
advice and support on a number of occasions.
In France, Annette Lévy-Willard of Libération has been a most
generous friend and a valuable source of contacts, documents, infor-
mation, and, most of all, conversation. Without her help on many
occasions, this book would not have been possible. I have learned
much from Henry Rousso, who has shared his remarkable knowledge
and insights into the memory of Vichy with me on several occasions
and has been most generous in making the resources of the Institut
d’Histoire du Temps Présent available to me. Tzvetan Todorov has
over the last several years shared his unique and rich perspectives on
contemporary France and Europe with me, as has Marc Dambre and
Jean-Jacques Fleury. From Rémy Desquesnes I have learned to appre-
ciate in a visceral sense the sacrifices of war on visits to the Normandy
beaches and cemeteries. My friends Pat and Hervé Picton have of-
fered me their hospitality on my numerous trips to France.
In England, Chris Flood has been a constant friend and intellectual
companion for many years.
In the United States, my debts are many. Lynn Higgins and Bob
Soucy o√ered much helpful advice in the revision of this manuscript,
and I hope neither is too disappointed by the final version. I have also
learned a great deal about film and literature from Lynn and about
fascism from Bob, and I have benefited as well from many conversa-
tions over the years with Mary Jean Green, Rosemary Scullion, Dina
Shirzer, Jean-Pierre Cauvin, Leah Hewitt, Je√rey Schnapp, Richard
Wolin, Bert Gordon, Tom Hilde, and Van and Mary Kelly. In the
mid-1980s I had the great pleasure of attending Steve Ungar and
Dudley Andrew’s neh seminar on French fiction and film between