Vichy France and the Jews - Hardcover

Marrus, Michael R.; Paxton, Robert O.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465090052 ISBN 13: 9780465090051

Publisher: Basic Books, 1981

Synopsis

Examines the Vichy regime's anti-Semitic policies and practices, and documents French cooperation in the Nazi effort to eliminate the Jews

About this title

Review:

"A quite brilliant work giving in fascinating detail the origins and evolution of Vichy's Jewish policies and the support--and sometimes aversion--these policies called forth in the French population. . . . The authors have written an utterly absorbing book, something of a spiritual history of a great democratic nation sunk in the squalor of moral collapse." (The Times Literary Supplement)

"Marrus and Paxton provide a graphic and often heartrending account of official cruelty, administrative callousness, public prejudices, and popular indifference; the section on Vichy's concentration camps is particularly eloquent. Their exhaustive research and the sobriety of their prose make this indictment far more powerful than previous works on the subject." (New York Times Book Review)

"This superb and definitive description of Vichy's policy . . . has two conspicuous merits. It pulverizes the defense of those apologists of Vichy who claim that Pétain or Laval weren't as bad as all that. It also allows the historical debate to shift from 'what happened?' to 'why did it happen?'" (New York Review of Books)

From the Back Cover:

'This superb and definitive description of Vichy's policy...has two conspicuous merits. It pulverizes the defense of those apologists of Vichy who claim that Petain and Laval weren't as bad as all that. It also allows the historical debate the shift from 'what happened?' to 'why did it happen?' -New York Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0465090052
• ISBN 13: 9780465090051
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1