Vichy France and the Jews Book

In the interests of full disclosure, the review that follows is likely influenced by the fact that my father, along with his brother and parents (my grandparents and uncle), were interned in various detention camps in France until they luckily were able to leave in March of 1942 (my father was 9 at the time of their departure), only a few months before Jews were transported to Drancy for subsequent deportation to Auschwitz. Relying on a vast array of government documents and memoirs, the authors exhaustively examine the behavior of the French during the four years of German occupation of the northern France and Vichy rule over Southern France. In doing so, the authors counter the once accepted notion that the French collaboration in the arrest and deportation of French Jews was the result of German pressure rather than antisemitism and a desire to rid France of "foreign" influence on the nation. Indeed, the authors show that the Vichy anti-Jewish legislation not only preceded the Nazi legislation in the Occupied Zone but, in many respects, including in defining who was a Jew, went beyond Nazi legislation. Further, the authors conclusively show how the Vichy, with no or little prompting, were willing to assist the Nazis in identifying and rounding up and arresting and then deporting Jews. As one German official later said, in substance, the Nazis could never have "accomplished" as much as they did without French assistance. That said, a greater percentage of French Jews survived than Jews in other countries. However, the authors show that this was not the result of French concern for the Jews. Rather, it was the product of various factors, including the progress of the war. In that regard, one interesting section of the book was a comparison -- not flattering to the French -- between the conduct of the Vichy and that of Hungary and Rumania, countries popularly viewed as more antisemitic than France. To the extent I have any criticisms of the book, I would have liked some more background on the history and failures of the Popular Front. And I would have liked a short chapter that covered the ultimate fate of the French Vichy officials who collaborated with the Nazis. But these are minor quibbles to an outstanding history of an important period of French history.