My students look at the memorial of tens of thousands of names of those deported from France outside La Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris (J. Boyer-Switala) There is a longstanding joke in France that began after WWII that every French citizen was a member of the Résistance. Clearly, this was a myth or the fierce, violent retribution against collaborators would not have been carried out so swiftly. This phrase, albeit in jest, strikes a nerve in the collective memory of the French when it comes to their role during the Occupation, and describes what historian Henry Rousso has coined as le syndrome de Vichy, or the Vichy Syndrome. The Vichy Syndrome by Henry Rousso (amazon.com) The Vichy Syndrome, simply put, is France’s ongoing struggle in coming to terms with les années noires (the dark years) of Nazi Occupation. Rousso has divided the Vichy Syndrome into four distinct stages of memory: Unfinished Mourning (1945-1953), Repressed Memory (1954-1971), The Broken Mirror (1972-1980),
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