Facing the past: French wartime memories at the millennium

H Diamond; C Gorrara

doi:10.1057/9781403948182_12

Facing the past: French wartime memories at the millennium

H Diamond
, C Gorrara

Politics, Languages & International Studies

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceeding › Book chapter

Abstract

More than almost any other aspect of French twentieth-century history, the resistance has symbolized a set of democratic and liberal values which constitute the bedrock of French post-war identity. Yet in the 1990s, this heroic story of a national uprising against the forces of nazism was challenged. The war record of prominent resistance activists, such as Raymond and Lucie Aubrac, came under increasing attack. Both in the courtroom and in the pages of major newspapers, the lives and actions of resistance heroes, dead and alive, were contested in ways that point to the very dissolution of the Gaullist myth of la France résistante. In this chapter, we shall explore the shifting politics of memory by looking at the impact of two wartime figures on current debates over the legacy of France’s wartime past: Jean Moulin, the iconic figure of Gaullist resistance, and Maurice Papon, the former Vichy civil servant who was successfully prosecuted for complicity in crimes against humanity in 1998.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Reinventing France State and Society in the Twenty-First Century.
Editors	S Milner, N Parsons
Place of Publication	Basingstoke
Publisher	Palgrave Macmillan
Pages	173-184
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Print)	9781403902153
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403948182_12
Publication status	Published - 2003
Event	19th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, September 1999 - Cardiff, UK United Kingdom Duration: 1 Sept 1999 → …

Publication series

Name	French Politics, Society and Culture Series
Publisher	Palgrave Macmillan

Conference

Conference	19th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, September 1999
Country/Territory	UK United Kingdom
City	Cardiff
Period	1/09/99 → …

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Access to Document

10.1057/9781403948182_12

Cite this

Diamond, H & Gorrara, C 2003, Facing the past: French wartime memories at the millennium. in S Milner & N Parsons (eds), Reinventing France State and Society in the Twenty-First Century.. French Politics, Society and Culture Series, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 173-184, 19th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, September 1999, Cardiff, UK United Kingdom, 1/09/99. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403948182_12

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author = "H Diamond and C Gorrara",

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editor = "S Milner and N Parsons",

booktitle = "Reinventing France State and Society in the Twenty-First Century.",

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AB - More than almost any other aspect of French twentieth-century history, the resistance has symbolized a set of democratic and liberal values which constitute the bedrock of French post-war identity. Yet in the 1990s, this heroic story of a national uprising against the forces of nazism was challenged. The war record of prominent resistance activists, such as Raymond and Lucie Aubrac, came under increasing attack. Both in the courtroom and in the pages of major newspapers, the lives and actions of resistance heroes, dead and alive, were contested in ways that point to the very dissolution of the Gaullist myth of la France résistante. In this chapter, we shall explore the shifting politics of memory by looking at the impact of two wartime figures on current debates over the legacy of France’s wartime past: Jean Moulin, the iconic figure of Gaullist resistance, and Maurice Papon, the former Vichy civil servant who was successfully prosecuted for complicity in crimes against humanity in 1998.

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PB - Palgrave Macmillan

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ER -

Facing the past: French wartime memories at the millennium

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

UN SDGs

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