Joly, Laurent Vichy

Histoire d' une Dictature 1940-1944

More than eighty years after its demise, the Vichy regime continues to haunt France's collective memory. Within a few days in July 1940, the Republic collapsed. Behind Marshal Pétain, the national hero who had become France's head of state, and the unscrupulous politician Pierre Laval, opportunists who had bet on Germany and right-wing extremist dogmatists seized power. A dictatorship ensued, the worst kind. The government opted for political collaboration in 1940, embarked on a path of anti-Semitic crimes in 1942, and ultimately turned almost the entire population against it. This dark chapter is recounted here as never before, based on unpublished archives, newly uncovered witness statements and new historical approaches that take into account the psychological motivations, the complexity of the characters' life stories and their scope for action. In the course of reading, a vivid and contrasting picture emerges. The work shows both the headlong rush and selfish blindness of the Pétain regime's most important leaders, as well as the implementation of criminal policies, sometimes mitigated by officials who formed a genuine grey area at the heart of the state, and a public opinion that was long wait-and-see but leaning towards the Allies. A powerful reflection on the disastrous consequences of amorality in politics and historical conclusions that question our present.