Controversy over Vichy and Pétain's role: Eric Zemmour's untruths
Audio 03:41
The far-right candidate Éric Zemmour, during his first presidential campaign meeting, on December 5, 2021, in Villepinte, in the Paris region.
© AP - Rafael Yaghobzadeh
By: Sophie Malibeaux |
Grégory Genevrier Follow
4 min
Traveling to Vichy on December 8, 2021, Emmanuel Macron insisted on the importance of not manipulating, agitating or reviewing History.
This declaration implicitly targets the untruths of the French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, on the government of Philippe Pétain during the Second World War.
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“
Vichy takes us back to a History. [...] Let us be careful not to manipulate it, to agitate it, to see it again
”,
declared the Head of State on France Bleu
. Without citing him by name, Emmanuel Macron directly alludes to Eric Zemmour's statements. The former polemicist reaffirmed it during an interview for Europe 1 and Cnews last September: “
Vichy protected French Jews and gave foreign Jews.
This thesis, which he has been defending for a long time, presents Philippe Pétain as the savior of French Jews during the occupation between 1940 and 1944. His recent remarks have resurfaced the controversy. "
The myth of Pétain, the protector of the Jews, does not stand up to historical analysis for a second.
", Particularly indignant the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, on Radio J.
The question is no longer debated today, since there is a historical reality which is based on incontestable facts and documents.
While it is true that Jews of foreign origin were the first to be targeted by Pétain's government, French Jews were also the subject of roundups as early as 1942, as at the Vel d'Hiv, for example, where
around 4 000 French Jewish children will be deported to death camps
, by order of Vichy.
The registers of the Shoah Memorial in Paris attest to this.
There are also documents such as
the decree on the status of the Jews adopted on October 3, 1940
, a text annotated by Pétain, showing how he personally worked to harden the lot of the Jews in France at the time, and not only in occupied zone.
So no, Pétain neither protected nor saved French Jews as Eric Zemmour claims.
Historiographic consensus
According to world-renowned historian Robert O. Paxton, the former Marshal never even asked the Germans not to deport them. Éric Zemmour attacks precisely the work of Robert O. Paxton which according to him is at the origin of a doxa on Vichy. However, the elements brought by the American historian in his book,
La France de Vichy
, published in 1972, are part of a consensus on the account of this historical period.
Relying on German, French and American archives, he was the first to establish the responsibilities of the Pétain regime.
Eric Zemmour, for his part, relies on a handful of highly contested historians who partially release Pétain from his responsibilities.
Robert O. Paxton himself returned to the candidate's words in an interview with
Le Monde
published on December 2, 2021.
The obsession of the founder of the Reconquest party is to paint a portrait of a glorified France which does not have to be ashamed of its past.
A speech based on untruths in particular able to seduce the electorate of the extreme right.
His reasoning goes even further.
He wants to put an end to "
guilt and repentance
".
"
We are trying to make the French people feel guilty
", he said "
so that they submit to the migratory invasion and the Islamization of the country
".
The history of Vichy seen by Éric Zemmour is only one element in an argument aimed at promoting
the conspiracy thesis of the “
Great Replacement
” promoted by Renaud Camus
.
Prosecution
Regarding his statements on Pétain, Eric Zemmour was tried last February for “
contesting a crime against humanity
”.
The prosecution had requested a 10,000 euros fine, but the Paris court released him, ruling that these words had been pronounced "point
blank during a debate on Syria
", while acknowledging that they contained "
The denial of [Pétain's] participation in the policy of extermination of the Jews carried out by the Nazi regime
".
The plaintiffs, SOS Racisme, the Licra, and the UESJ decided to appeal.
The trial is scheduled for January 20, 2022.
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