The Haunting Past
Subtitle: History, Memory, and Justice in Contemporary France (Critical Authors and Issues)
Contributors: Ora Avni (Foreword); Philippe Petit (Preface); Ralph Schoolcraft (Translator)
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: January 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 120
ISBN-13: 9780812236453
Subjects: European history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000; History: World; German occupation, 1940-1945; History - General History; National socialism; France; Holocaust; Europe - France; Law / Professional Responsibility; History; Holocaust, Jewish, 1939-1945; Moral and ethical aspects; Trials (Crimes against humanity)
First sentence: Philippe Petit: When you were a student at the Ecole Normale Superieure in the mid-1970s, the discovery of Robert Paxton's Vichy France compelled you to pursue your studies on the history of the crisis years of 1940-44.
Description: "In The Haunting Past, French historian Henry Rousso discusses the varied and controversial treatments of French collaboration with the Nazis during the Vichy regime, focusing specifically on the roles played by historians, and history itself, in the postwar trials of accused collaborators.

While discussion of Nazi collaboration was mostly suppressed in the years immediately following World War II, recent changes in public sentiment paved the way for formal trials of former Vichy officials charged with collaborating with Nazi Germany.

In a series of pointed interviews conducted by journalist Philippe Petit, Rousso considers events of the recent past, especially the emotionally charged Papon trial in France and the revelations that have come to light with the opening of communist archives."--BOOK JACKET.