* Gautam Mukunda [Sat, 15/03/2003 at 20:12 -0800] > Since they seem to be made by someone who knows a > _lot_ less of France's history than I do, no, not > really. The Vichy government was a collaborationist > government of France that ran southern France _without > German occupation_ for much of the early war. German > troops did not move into Vichy-controlled areas for at > least a couple of years after 1940. German demands > for the exportation of Jews were met with more > alacrity in France than they were in _Italy_, an > actual honest-to-God Axis power.
You forgot to mention that Germans had 1.5 Millions French hostages held in captivity in Germany. > There is no record of significant efforts to prevent the massacre of > the Jews by the Vichy government, which had much more independence > than dilettantes in French history realize, by the French Catholic > Church, by the Resistance, or by anyone else of significance in French > society. There is tremendous record of ordinary people helping to hide and protect Jews. People taking jew children and pretenting they were theirs, civil servants making false papers to give Jews false identity with a French sounding name, local priests disobeying hierarchy to forge baptism certificates. That said the Vichy government was the disgusting reunion of a bunch of far rightists and catholics, catholics whose official stance at the time was Jews were guilty of having killed Jesus. That said it's completely true that the government at that time could have saved a lot more of people. It's also true that that part of history has been downplayed for decades, but that's true that the current society had had the courage to review the period and even tried a former Vichy prefect. What I want to point out here, and that I confirm with all the friendly relationships I have all over the world, is that it's completeley unfair to judge individuals, or infer their thoughts by the acts of their government. > When American tourists in France are > told to identify themselves as Canadian to avoid > trouble, that says something too. Looks surrealistic to me. I'm interrested in having more information on that (offical travel advice links etc.). But I reassure all the Americans who wants to travel here. They don't need to fear the mob. We're not even stampeding hamburgers and breaking californian wine bottles in gutters for not having exactly the same opinion on Iraq. -- Jean-Marc _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
