Language:
English
Year of publication:
2013
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
27,2 (2013) 276-298
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews Legal status, laws, etc.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews Legal status, laws, etc.
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Criticizes the historiographic tendency to depict the Vichy regime as autonomous and its Jewish Statute of 3 October 1940 as drafted by the Vichy rulers independently of the Germans, without any pressure on their part, and originating from national French antisemitic tradition. Argues that the traditional French antisemitism was not racial and revolved around the ideas of denaturalization of French Jews and limiting their access to the civil service, army, professions, etc. Even the French radical right derided the anti-Jewish racism of the German Nazis. Contends that the Jewish Statute of October 1940 was a result of interaction between the demands of French rightists in the Vichy government and the exigencies of a future cooperation with the Germans: Vichy rulers included in it provisions which were expected of them by the German military administration in France. Pétain's antisemitic attitudes played some role in the modification of the future statute. The resulting law had many similarities with the anti-Jewish laws enacted throughout Nazi-controlled Europe. The Vichy government itself justified the Jewish Statute as being integral to the policy of "national reconstruction", so that it would not seem to be legislated simply to please the Nazis.
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