Vichy law and the Holocaust in France
By: Richard H. Weisberg.
Publisher: Published for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemetism (SICSA), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by New York University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 447
Subjects: Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- France -- History -- 20th century; Lawyers -- France -- History -- 20th century; World War, 1939-1945 -- Deportations from France; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- France; France -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945 -- Collaborationists
Description: The involvement of Vichy France with Nazi Germany's anti-Jewish policy has long been a source of debate and contention. At a time when France, after decades of denial, has finally acknowledged responsibility for its role in the deportation and murder of 75,000 Jews from France during the Holocaust, Richard H. Weisberg here provides us with a comprehensive and devastating account of the French legal system's complicity with its German occupiers during the dark period known as 'Vichy'.

Drawing on newly-available archival sources, personal interviews, and historical research, Weisberg reveals how legalized persecution actually operated on a practical level, often exceeding German expectations. Further, he presents a persuasive argument for Vichy law as an acquired Catholic response to a false notion of Jewish Talmudism.

The book also compares the Vichy experience to American legal precedents and practices and opens up the possibility that postmodern modes of thinking ironically adopt the complexity of Vichy reasoning to a host of reading and thinking strategies. Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France raises fundamental and disturbing questions about the ease with which democratic legal systems can be subverted.
Notes: Includes bibliograhical references (p. 431-435) and index.