- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Pan Books; New edition edition (6 July 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 033048785X
- ISBN-13: 978-0330487856
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 333,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
"'An illuminating and dramatic account.' Independent on Sunday; 'Lucidly and dispassionately, it tells an astounding story.' Evening Standard; 'Paul Webster's account cuts through like a guillotine' Mail on Sunday"
Product Description
An account of the fate of Jews under the wartime Vichy government. This text examines the role of Marechal Philippe Petain in the persecution and mass murder of Jews under the Vichy government. It provides an account of this national "hero" and "saviour", whose complicity was long hidden in secrecy and shame. This updated publication covers developments since the book was first published in 1990, and includes war trials and the national denunciation of Vichy that followed the death of President Francois Mitterrand, who had opposed official condemnation.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First published in 1990, this book had an immediate impact in France where there has been a sustained cover up and denial of the extent of France's complicity in the Holocaust. The publication and the death of former Premier Mitterrand,(who opposed official condemnation and blocked repeated attempts to bring suspects to trial) led to the Jacques Chirac's acceptance of France's guilt and involvement in "the dark hours that had sullied our history for ever and are an insult to our past and traditions."
The book challenges the traditional perception that France was a reluctant collaborator in the Final Solution, forced into cooperating,thereby perpetuating the myth of a 'Free France' because as Petain steadfastly maintained, non cooperation would have resulted in a much worse scenario. In fact, what is both revealing and shocking is how anti-semetic the French were. Anti-Jewish legislation had been prepared before the Vichy regime came into existence.
Furthermore, while there appears to have been much that officials could have done to have delayed and derailed activities, the French showed an appetite for percecuting the Jews that equalled and surpassed the Nazis. Indeed,there appears to have been an unhealthy competition between France and Germany to become the most anti-semetic nation. The fact remains that the Nazis would never have killed the number of French Jews and Jewish immigrants had it not been for the French enthusiasm for the Nazi project.
The book also dispels the myth that Petain was senile and unaware of the atrocities being committed in his name, by Leval et al, thereby emphasizing without any doubt, his guilt.
Webster presents a cutting argument that dispassionately states its case.
Also worth reading, but is apparently out of print is the author's book about Mitterrand.
The book challenges the traditional perception that France was a reluctant collaborator in the Final Solution, forced into cooperating,thereby perpetuating the myth of a 'Free France' because as Petain steadfastly maintained, non cooperation would have resulted in a much worse scenario. In fact, what is both revealing and shocking is how anti-semetic the French were. Anti-Jewish legislation had been prepared before the Vichy regime came into existence.
Furthermore, while there appears to have been much that officials could have done to have delayed and derailed activities, the French showed an appetite for percecuting the Jews that equalled and surpassed the Nazis. Indeed,there appears to have been an unhealthy competition between France and Germany to become the most anti-semetic nation. The fact remains that the Nazis would never have killed the number of French Jews and Jewish immigrants had it not been for the French enthusiasm for the Nazi project.
The book also dispels the myth that Petain was senile and unaware of the atrocities being committed in his name, by Leval et al, thereby emphasizing without any doubt, his guilt.
Webster presents a cutting argument that dispassionately states its case.
Also worth reading, but is apparently out of print is the author's book about Mitterrand.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An excellent and harrowing description of how a nation that prided itself on its support for the rights of man not only collaborated with Nazi persecution of Jews, but even anticipated such repression in advance, drawing up anti-Jewish statutes and paving the way for later deportation of thousands of French and foreign Jews to Auschwitz. The existence of transit camps and even an extermination camp on French soil are particularly shocking, even more so the sufferings of children as young as toddler age at Drancy. The decades of collective national denial until the 1990s are also well covered, as are the shocking revelations about links between Vichy figures and Mitterrand.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The crimes of the Vichy regime were successfully covered up for many years after the war, with the complicity of many leading politicians in France. This book reveals the truth about the virulently anti-Semitic regime and its complicity with the Nazis.
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