Pre-WWII France In the 1920s and 1930s, France, like the rest of Europe and America, suffered from hyperinflation during the Great Depression. The middle class was hardest hit as they resorted to selling personal belongings and treasured heirlooms that had been in their families for generations. Devastated, they looked for someone or something to blame for their misfortune. The French blamed their existing government, The Third Republic. As a response to the economic crisis, there was a strong political reaction all over Europe that pitted an extreme right against a radical left. The League of the Croix de Feu. Paris, Avenue des Champs-Elysées, 14 July 1935. Photo Credit: parisenimages The far right in France was an alliance between, Action Française, the Parti Populaire Française (PPF) and the Croix de Feu. These groups exuded an aggressive nationalism and hated parliamentary governments, Communists, and were extremely anti-Semitic and xenophobic (particularly against
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