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The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944

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From the Liberation purges to the Barbie trial, France has struggled with the memory of the Vichy a memory of defeat, occupation, and repression. In this provocative study, Henry Rousso examines how this proud nation―a nation where reality and myth commingle to confound understanding―has dealt with les années noires . Specifically, he studies what the French have chosen to remember―and to conceal.

398 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

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About the author

Henry Rousso

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Henry Rousso is a research professor at the Institut d'histoire du temps présent, CNRS. He is the author of The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France Since 1944 (Harvard U.P., 1994).

Henry Rousso first worked on the history of the Second World War and post-war period. His early writings focused on political and economic history of the Vichy regime. Then he turned to a history of memory of the war and spent much of his thinking to the history of collective memory and uses of the past. He is currently working in a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective on the relationship between history, memory and justice, and more generally on the epistemology of contemporary history.

Born in Cairo in 1954, graduated from the Ecole Normale Superieure de Saint-Cloud (1974-1979), ”agrégé” in history (1977), Henry Rousso holds a ”Habilitation à diriger des recherches” (Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, 2000). He joined the CNRS in 1981, he participated in the creation of the IHTP inaugurated a year before, which he headed from 1994 to 2005.

He was a member of the National Committee of the CNRS (1987-1994) and Secretary General of the International Committee for the History of the Second World War, which is based in Paris (1990-2000). He presided in 2001 the ”Entretiens du Patrimoine”, and from 2002 to 2004, the Commission on Racism and Holocaust deniers at the University Jean Moulin-Lyon III, established by the Ministry of Education.

He has been research associate or visiting professor in many places : Center for European Studies (Harvard University, 1986-1987), Munich (Bosch Stiftung, 1990), New York University (1992), Dartmouth College (1994), Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (2005), Texas A & M University (2007), Jena Center Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts (2009).

He is a member of several editorial boards : Vingtième Siècle, History and Memory, South Central Review, SegleXX. Revista catalana di Stòria, Les Cahiers du Judaïsme, Cahiers d’histoire du temps présent (Bruxelles), and several scientific councils : Centre français de recherche en sciences sociales (CEFRES, Prague, Chair), Centre de recherche de l’Historial de Péronne, Mémorial de la Shoah de Paris, Mémorial de la Paix à Caen, Jena Center Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts (Allemagne), Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Allemagne), Museum of the Second World War (Gdansk), etc.

He taught at the École normale supérieure de Cachan (1998-2004) and the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (1988-1990 & 2007-2010). He supervised doctoral students at the University of Paris-Ouest-Nanterre La Défense, most of them in (co-tutelles) with European and North American universities. In September 2011 onward, he will join the École doctorale d’histoire at Paris 1 where he will supervise doctorates, and he will give a seminar in the master program "Histoire des sociétés occidentales contemporaines (XIXe- XXIe siècles)".

He runs the series : "Contemporary European History, Berghahn Books (Oxford/New York), with Konrad Jarausch.

Since 2006, he coordinates the European Research Group (GDRE) "The European Network for Contemporary History" EURHISTXX.

http://www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/spip.php%3Far...

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Profile Image for Mathieu.
375 reviews21 followers
November 2, 2015
Il faut toujours revenir aux sources. J'avais lu (rapidement) cet ouvrage lorsque j'étais en licence pour la préparation d'un exposé sur la fascisation du régime (et donc il n'avait pas été de grande utilité pour ce sujet).

Depuis 2008 (?), la mémoire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en France est au programme de la classe de Terminale. Enseignant ce chapitre, je puisais dans mes souvenirs, lointains donc, de ma lecture réactivés par ce qu'en disait les manuels.

Or, le propos des manuels est pour le moins caricatural surtout en ce qui concerne le "mythe résistancialiste" ou plutôt les mythes résistancialistes car il y a la version gaulliste (qui fonctionne comme un paralogisme : la Résistance incarne une certaine idée de la France elle-même incarnée par De Gaulle) et la version communiste (la Résistance comme mouvement populaire d'insurrection nationale) et sa chronologie, beaucoup plus complexe et fine que la réduction qui en faite dans les manuels (la période 1945-1970 n'est pas celle du mythe résistancialiste puisqu'il n'opère que brièvement en 1944-1947 puis entre 1958 et 1968). La lecture du livre de Pierre Laborie depuis m'a permis de prendre des distances avec cette notion qui, si elle est intéressante, n'en est pas moins problématique en ce sens où, même en changeant un "t" par un "c", elle provient de la droite voire l'extrême-droite qui, dans les années 1947-1954, cherche à réhabiliter Vichy en dénigrant l'héritage de la Résistance, ainsi que Rousso l'explique lui-même. Alors pourquoi réutiliser cette notion ? Est-elle encore opératoire ?

L'autre aspect intéressant, peu mis en avant par les manuels, est celui du titre : le syndrome de Vichy proprement dit. C'est la partie la plus convaincante de l'ouvrage même si elle repose sur le constat de la "guerre franco-française" donc de la guerre civile, là aussi un aspect contesté dans l'historiographie depuis. Cela dit, l'argumentaire déployé par Rousso est vraiment convaincant, notamment dans sa conclusion lorsqu'il identifie les trois aspects ou éléments constitutifs de cette fracture et de sa résurgence dans la vie politique et culturelle de la France après 1945 : le catholicisme qui n'a jamais accepté la société qui émergeait depuis la Révolution française, de là l'idéologie de la droite réactionnaire et conservatrice, extrêmement poreuse avec l'extrême-droite, et enfin l'antisémitisme d'une partie de ces courants, un antisémitisme spécifiquement français qui s'était montré pendant l'Affaire Dreyfus.

L'aspect le plus intéressant a été, cela dit, pour moi les pages, trop peu nombreuses malheureusement, dans lesquelles Rousso montre comment les mouvements politiques issus de la Résistance, gaullisme et communisme, ont sabordé l'héritage de la Résistance avec la complicité de certains résistants eux-mêmes. Lorsque l'abbé Desgranges dénonce le "résistantialisme" et les "crimes masqués de l'épuration" en 1948, lorsque le Colonel Rémy traverse une crise mystique et réhabilite le régime de Vichy de Pétain, le tout au nom de l'anticommunisme et aussi au nom du catholicisme. A gauche, par deux fois Rousso évoque comment les cadres de la Résistance ont été écartés par la direction du Parti communiste après-guerre ainsi que l'échec d'un "parti de la Résistance". Sur tous ces aspects, je souhaite en savoir plus, car j'en perçois une traduction législative dans les lois d'amnistie votées en 1951 et 1953, lois qui ont permis l'oubli qui s'en est suivi, la réémergence du "mythe résistancialiste" dans sa version gaullienne, et la réhabilitation de l'(extrême-)droite française.

Quoiqu'il en soit, ce livre, même dans ses aspects lacunaires (surtout plus de 25 ans après sa parution) reste un puissant stimulateur intellectuel pour comprendre la société et la politique dans laquelle nous sommes car depuis, si certains ont parlé, dans les années 1990 d'un apaisement des mémoires, celui-ci s'est fait plus par oubli (générationnel) et l'on voit que les mémoires -- ou leur absence -- sont aujourd'hui au coeur des évolutions politiques actuels dans une France qui se droitise.
Profile Image for Mikey B..
1,136 reviews481 followers
September 15, 2024
Page 71 (my book)

The past was plundered by both sides to provide historical justification for action in the present, but at the same time it was shown to be infinitely malleable, manipulable at will for rhetorical effect and slanderous purpose… in fact [the Occupation] was a trauma from which the whole society still suffered.

This book was written by a French historian and I read the English translation. There are distinct differences in French writing than from similar historical/journalistic books written by English authors (whether North American, U.K., Irish…). For one thing, there is a more philosophical and inquiring tone to the writing (one could say existential). Different points of view are under, sometimes, savage analysis. The French are not subdued and show little compunction to bashing each other – in words.

The author tells us how the history of Vichy France (including the areas occupied by Nazi Germany) changed and was altered after liberation in 1944 and of how perceptions were modified over time. This book was published in 1991.

After the liberation the Resistance was hailed, particularly by de Gaulle, as a single entity – when in fact it was comprised of various groups: communists, Gaullists, local regional…). De Gaulle abstracted the Resistance to the “soul of France” (page 245).

And then there was “l’epuration” – the cleansing of those who had participated and collaborated with the Germans. It is estimated that over 10,000 French were killed - many before the D-Day landings of June 6/1944. But this “epuration” came to be re-written itself when many of those who were sentenced to prison terms or national indignity (losing the right to vote, unable to work for the government…) were pardoned in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

There was almost a somnolent phase on Vichy during the 1950s and early 1960s where it came to be assumed that most French were in the Resistance.

Behind all this was the figure of Marshall Pétain. There were right-wing groups who wanted him pardoned. After he died in exile on the island of d’Yeu off the coast of France in 1951 at the age of 95, there was a steady campaign to place his remains at the site of his World War I fame in Verdun. This would have symbolized an exoneration of the Marshall in the eyes of many. The move to Verdun never succeeded, but Pétain is still an object of veneration for some.

Perhaps the lack of inquiry on Vichy France in the 1950s and 60s was due to the disastrous French defeats in both Vietnam and Algeria. There was little appeal to probe Vichy.

Page 83 in the early 1960s

The Resistance became a common theme of films, novels, and historical treatises, while Vichy and collaboration fell under a taboo that was rarely violated.

In regards to the remains of Jean Moulin (de Gaulle’s representative sent to France and then murdered) which were moved to the Pantheon in 1964:

Page 95

The dead man [Jean Moulin] was honored in such a way as to honor even more the living head of state [Charles de Gaulle].

But in 1968 there were student riots and upheavals that sent shockwaves throughout French society. De Gaulle died in 1970. And in 1971, as the author states (page 100) the release of the documentary film “The Sorrow and the Pity” created an “explosion”. (It is recommended to view this film prior to reading this book.)

This documentary broke down many Vichy myths. It showed the French from all levels of society who were not just complacent collaborators, but also some who were full-fledged participants who believed in the Nazi cause. Pétain was complicit with Hitler in creating the “New Europe”. It demonstrated how the French were participants in the Final Solution. Vichy France was not just the Resistance. Several historical taboos were breached in this 4 hour documentary.

Page 113

The idyllic marriage of France with de Gaulle and the Resistance was on the rocks.

The “Sorrow and the Pity” was only shown in theaters; due to censorship it would take ten years for it to be viewed on television. But the French people were informed by their media, magazines, newspapers and talk shows of the contents of this film.

The film unleashed in the 1970s and 1980s more books, magazine articles, and films on various aspects of Vichy that had not been addressed before.

Page 130

Thrust into the public eye against their will, the collaborators, who had previously been cropped out of the images of the past although not banished from social intercourse, suddenly assumed a different guise: that of the father. But this discovery was traumatic because meanwhile other fathers (and mothers), parents who had also disappeared but in Hitler’s ovens, had returned to haunt the collective memory.

Even though many collaborators had been pardoned in the 1950s, a decision was reached in the 1980s to charge French citizens with “crimes against humanity” which had no expiration date.

Page 190 By the 1980s

No party and no individual, no matter how reputable, emerged from the Occupation unscathed… the ultimate failure of the Resistance heritage [of the 1950s].

There are many interweaving and colliding factors: Pétain and his National Revolution (Work, Family, Country), deported workers to Germany (over one million), collaborators (of various forms, from economic to those who joined the French SS), French prisoners of war (over one million), the Resistance (partly composed of those who escaped deportation), French citizens who participated in the round-up of Jews…

Despite a lot of name-dropping in this book, it is a very probing look at how a country’s attitude to its past can evolve and be viewed in a far more factual manner, devoid of myth-making. Many countries could learn from the French experience of the Vichy years and its long aftermath.
56 reviews
January 15, 2025
Took a while to get through, but it's a solid book. I read it in french so I can't comment on the translation, but I thought it had excellent prose. Certainly it has much more fun writing than most dry english language histories. It's a classic in its field for a reason and is well worth a read if you're interested in Vichy and the history of memory.
12 reviews
August 27, 2025
Very compelling historiographical analysis. Also informed much of my gov final paper. The junction of philosophy, psychology, and political science is always interesting, especially in the salient context of postwar France.
285 reviews5 followers
October 20, 2020
An important and deeply thorough analysis of Vichy and the Resistance and their lasting effect in all aspects (history, film, writing, society).
Profile Image for tamaino.
41 reviews
May 26, 2025
第二部分很有趣,第一部分如果不是🇫🇷人/非常熟悉🇫🇷二十世紀重大事件的人讀起來可能會覺得頭很大
Profile Image for Peter.
1,154 reviews46 followers
November 25, 2020
This read like a sociology/history student’s graduate research paper. The author culls France’s post war political news for events that characterize the members of the French resistance and the Vichy collaborators. The material is not organized for someone unfamiliar with French postwar political history, so it is a rather hard slog, and not so enlightening. After some 150 pages I can safely say that DeGaulle was less hard on the Vichy collaborators because he wanted to hold France together and rebuild. Well … duh.
Profile Image for Mesut Bostancı.
292 reviews35 followers
October 30, 2016
This is a masterful cultural study of national myth, national amnesia, and the long-to-die legacy of the right wing in France. No, the country was not caught up as one national in the virtuous resistance of the Nazi occupation, that was mostly the radical left and immigrants, yes many were more than happy (catholics, reactionaries, etc) to work with the Vichy government, and it's structure was as much a French polity as it was a German import.
Profile Image for Emily.
425 reviews9 followers
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April 8, 2010
Really a must-read for historians of memory or the Vichy regime. Oft-cited and well worth the read.
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