2013
Cairn
Emmanuel Debono, « L’antisémitisme en France pendant la drôle de guerre », Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah, ID : 10670/1.jbfp96
Anti-Semitism in France during the Phoney warAfter a 10 year period characterized by political struggles and a clear resurgence of anti-Semitism, the militant members of the first French anti-racist organization – Ligue internationale contre l’antisémistisme (LICA) – wanted to believe that France, which had entered the war in September 1939, would revive the “sacred union” which prevailed during World War I. The drastic circumstances of the time were not sufficient to change the position of those groups who openly expressed their hatred of Jews in the 1930s. This article deals with the anti-Jewish phenomena that existed from 1939 to 1940 when the French were defeated. It raises questions about the nature and range of these phenomena as well as about the attitude adopted by the authorities towards them at a time when one was conscious of the imperative of “national unity”. An anti-racial defamation decree was enacted for the first time in the history of France on the eve of the war. It offered French society, among other things, a tool with which to fight racism; however, its application has to be questioned in the context of this troubled historical period.