Qu'est-ce qu'une communauté à l'époque contemporaine ? À propos d'une recherche sur les Juifs en Sarthe, 1889-1945

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Through the example of Sarthe, a French “département”, this study focuses on defining the notion of Jewish community. Our investigation spans from the apparition of the first anti-Semitic archives in Sarthe to the official date that the number of deportees was known in the county. It depicts the arrival of foreign Jews in the county in the inter-war period and studies the migration phenomena of these individuals and families. We show that this immigration had direct consequences on the creation of Jewish communitarian structures. We also illustrate the events happening in Sarthe when it became part of the occupied zone and consequences for the Jews living in the area, the massive arrival of Jewish refugees from Paris as soon as the War is declared, the anti-Jewish persecutions, and the dispersion of the Jewish community. We also analyse the tentative ways they tried to reconstruct the Jewish community and the difficulties they faced with that Henry Rousso defined as “Syndrome de Vichy”, the French attitude when it comes to deal with the World War II.