Our second stop of the visit was Bayeux and Paris, France. A central theme I encountered during the days of our France visit was the tension between Vichy’s collaboration and the French resistance during WWII. This caused a noticeable gap between their history and historical memory.
I found this evident in the first site we visited in Bayeux, the Caen Memorial Museum. Though the museum was nicely organized and presented a lot of correct information, I noticed a lot of passive voice in the way they described numerous Nazi actions. People “were deported,” property “was taken,” and it seemed that the museum wanted to shift the focus from Vichy’s own actions towards actions being done to Vichy. I also noticed this in the section on the Holocaust. There was a section about Jews and others “being deported,” but there was no mention of any Vichy France collaboration with the Nazi regime (which we, as WWII historians, know existed). A few interesting plaques at the museum were not translated into English. I was told that one of them claimed that since France had resisted they are among the victors of the war. This also aligns with the French desire to push collaboration under a rug and emphasize the role of the French resistance.
Once we arrived in Paris, I gave my site report outside the Memorial for the Martyrs of the Deportation. This memorial similarly showed the French desire to hide collaboration, as there was no mention of Vichy France collaboration in deporting Jews.
While the French actively emphasize their role in resistance, they downplay the role of Jewish resistance. When I gave my site report at the Memorial for the Martyrs of the Deportation, I analyzed possible reasons Tsilla Hershco, an Israeli historian and political scientist, gave for the French gap between history and memory. Hershco focuses on the French tendencies to emphasize the role of French righteous Gentiles while downplaying or ignoring entirely the roles of Jewish resistance fighters.
It was clear in many of the sites we visited how much France wanted to emphasize their prouder moments of the war and altogether ignore their more embarrassing and shameful moments, and how this struggle has become part of France’s historical memory.
Some pictures of our adventures:
Flags outside the Caen Memorial Museum
