Overview

In 1942, two years after invading France, the Germans implemented their policy of exterminating the Jews. In contrast to Jews in many parts of German-occupied Europe, however, the majority of Jews in France survived, thanks to opposition to the Nazi extermination policy from Church dignitaries and the moral indignation of the average Frenchmen. Seeking to maintain popular support, the Vichy Regime bargained with the Germans over the substance and extent of its collaboration, which the Germans needed in order to hold France. Translated from the German and drawing on German and French sources, Wolfgang Seibel traces the twisted process of political decision-making that shaped the fate of the Jews in German-occupied France during World War II. By analyzing the German-French negotiations, he reveals the underlying logic as well as the actual course of the bargaining process as both the Vichy Regime and the Germans sought a stable relationship. Yet that relationship was continually reshaped by the progress of the war, Germany’s deteriorating prospects, France’s economic and geopolitical position, and the Vichy government’s quest for domestic political support. The Jews’ suffering intensified when the Germans had the upper hand; but when the French felt empowered, the Vichy Regime stopped collaborating in the completion of the “final solution.” Persecution and Rescue: The Politics of the “Final Solution” in France, 1940–1944 demonstrates the ways in which political circumstances can mitigate—or foster—mass crime.

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9780472118601

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Reviews

While I recommend this book to all students of the Holocaust in France, particularly political scientists, I also prescribe it for anyone who mistakenly believes that the wartime murder of Jews in France can be explained by simple explanations, or sweeping generalizations about French society and its attitudes toward the victims. For Wolfgang Seibel has an excellent appreciation of complexity of these events. With an expert social scientist's sense of shifting power relations among the actors, he provides a carefully balanced and morally sensitive assessment of wartime bargaining among German occupiers, French state collaborators, and bystanders such as the Catholic Church. -Michael R. Marrus, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto and co-author, with Robert O. Paxton, of Vichy France and the Jews This book is a very detailed account based on all available archives, of the process that led to the persecution and deportation but also a deep questioning of the limits of the process : why were the deportations slowed down after the first wave of Summer 1942? Wolfgang Seibel studies the structure of persecution as his main focus of interest but he wants to break away from the traditional narrative of cumulative radicalisation provoked by a competition between agents/agencies. His technique of analysis is much more complex, questioning the a persecution apparatus often described as monolithic, the traditional differentiation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders and the question of actors' rationality that should be considered in a whole repertoire, including a moral one. It is a must read book for any researchers or students of the Holocaust in France. -Jean-Marc Dreyfus, The University of Manchester

While I recommend this book to all students of the Holocaust in France, particularly political scientists, I also prescribe it for anyone who mistakenly believes that the wartime murder of Jews in France can be explained by simple explanations, or sweeping generalizations about French society and its attitudes toward the victims. For Wolfgang Seibel has an excellent appreciation of complexity of these events. With an expert social scientist's sense of shifting power relations among the actors, he provides a carefully balanced and morally sensitive assessment of wartime bargaining among German occupiers, French state collaborators, and bystanders such as the Catholic Church. -Michael R. Marrus, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto and co-author, with Robert O. Paxton, of Vichy France and the Jews This book is a very detailed account based on all available archives, of the process that led to the persecution and deportation but also a deep questioning of the limits of the process : why were the deportations slowed down after the first wave of Summer 1942? Wolfgang Seibel studies the structure of persecution as his main focus of interest but he wants to break away from the traditional narrative of cumulative radicalisation provoked by a competition between agents/agencies. His technique of analysis is much more complex, questioning the a persecution apparatus often described as monolithic, the traditional differentiation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders and the question of actors' rationality that should be considered in a whole repertoire, including a moral one. It is a must read book for any researchers or students of the Holocaust in France. -Jean-Marc Dreyfus, The University of Manchester

While I recommend this book to all students of the Holocaust in France, particularly political scientists, I also prescribe it for anyone who mistakenly believes that the wartime murder of Jews in France can be explained by simple explanations, or sweeping generalizations about French society and its attitudes toward the victims. For Wolfgang Seibel has an excellent appreciation of complexity of these events. With an expert social scientist's sense of shifting power relations among the actors, he provides a carefully balanced and morally sensitive assessment of wartime bargaining among German occupiers, French state collaborators, and bystanders such as the Catholic Church.”—Michael R. Marrus, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto and co-author, with Robert O. Paxton, of Vichy France and the Jews """"This book is a very detailed account based on all available archives, of the process that led to the persecution and deportation but also a deep questioning of the limits of the process : why were the deportations slowed down after the first wave of Summer 1942? Wolfgang Seibel studies the structure of persecution as his main focus of interest but he wants to break away from the traditional narrative of cumulative radicalisation provoked by a competition between agents/agencies. His technique of analysis is much more complex, questioning the a persecution apparatus often described as monolithic, the traditional differentiation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders and the question of actors’ rationality that should be considered in a whole repertoire, including a moral one. It is a must read book for any researchers or students of the Holocaust in France.”—Jean-Marc Dreyfus, The University of Manchester

Author Information

Wolfgang Seibel is Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz and an Adjunct Professor at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin.

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