Language:
French
Year of publication:
2012
Titel der Quelle:
Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine
Angaben zur Quelle:
59,4 (2012) 97-123
Keywords:
Maurras, Charles,
;
Action française
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Before 1914, the propaganda of the Action Française (AF), an initially nationalist, then monarchist movement founded in 1898 in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, mainly targeted the internal Jewish "enemy". However, during World war I, AF's daily newspaper, the "Action Française", respected the sacred union, i.e. supported domestic unity in favor of the war, and extended its influence over a large part of right-wing and extreme right-wing opinion. The "well-born Jew", who had payed his dues in blood by serving in the Great War, appeared as part of the doctrine of "integral nationalism", and antisemitism was revised in the light of the Russian revolution, which was seen by the Right as the work of Jews. In the face of the supposed communist threat, assimilated French Jews ("Israelites") rose in esteem and their loyalty was counted upon by the movement. Argues that, although it moderated its former antisemitism until the early 1930s, it did not abandon the anti-Jewish views of Charles Maurras and his friends. The political situation did not lend itself to classical anti-Dreyfusard antisemitism, but Jew-bashing nevertheless retained an important and symbolic place in the AF, as evidenced by the Schrameck affair in 1925. After 1936, "Action Française" took up its prewar tone in a violent propaganda campaign against Léon Blum and the "Jewish war". During the occupation, the newspaper supported Vichy's antisemitic policy, which was itself inspired by AF's doctrine of "state antisemitism". Concludes that AF's support for Vichy contradicts the view that Maurassian antisemitism was "reasonable and moderate".
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