> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Gautam Mukunda
... > Or, you know, the Russians, who had a pretty effective > partisan campaign going. Or the Serbs, in Yugoslavia. > The Vichy government could, at the least, have > pretended to care about preserving the lives of its > Jewish citizens, instead of shipping them off with > enthusiasm. For heaven's sake... The "Vichy government" was not the government of France. It was a small group that collaborated with the Nazis, after the Nazis had already defeated the French army. Yet the way you offered this out of context suggests that you would have us believe that the so-called Vichy "government" was France. Is that what you intended? At any rate, even calling it a government is terribly misleading to anyone who doesn't know French history. Certainly France's behavior toward Jews during WWII was among the worst in Europe outside of Germany itself, but clearly was the work of a small minority that was only able to do thanks to Nazi occupation. While that group surely was wrong, characterizing the entire nation, a nation that granted Jews citizenship in its revolution (far better treatment than many other nations), by the behavior of the Vichys is fairly outrageous. They were atavists who wanted to return to pre-revolutionary Catholic aristocracy. At most, they made up 20 percent of the population. Given your earlier misrepresentation of French gratitude about its liberation in WWII and now this comment, I'm wondering if you simply don't know much about France or you have some anti-French prejudice, or it is carelessness driven by your distaste for their position regarding Iraq... or what? In any event, I hope the clarifications are appreciated. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
