Status Updates From Parigi '44: L'onta e la glo...

« The notion of national solidarity was a common theme of all the post-liberation instant history. To sustain it required some radical editing of the photographic record. […] The side of France that aided and abetted the Nazis was also almost completely absent from the celebratory expo and the outpourings of the publishing houses – several of which had carried on business happily under the occupation. »

« For most, liberation brought a rush of optimism. But Brasillach was right; the euphoria could not last, though for a little while no one wanted to dim the dream of a fresh start and a better future. ‘A new era is beginning,’ wrote Raymond Ruffin […] ‘an era of liberty […]. But will it succeed in sweeping away all the harsh memories of what we have just been through?’ »

« On the other side of the city in the Bois de Vincennes, the [Fourth Infantry Division] were bedded down in bivouac tents. They were damp and dirty but, lying there with the raindrops pattering on the canvas, they felt secure and flowing with the joy of existence. It seemed to Irwin Shaw, […] now in Paris with the army film unit, that this ‘was the day when the war should have ended.’ »