Abstract

Examines problems of Jewish assimilation in France from the Revolution until today. Pt. 2 (pp. 187-365), "Le modèle français", contests the generally held view of Jewish passivity during the Dreyfus Affair and in the 1930s, and compares police behavior during the Affair and Vichy. Examines the role of high-ranking civil servants under Vichy, with Maurice Papon as an example. Reveals traces of antisemitic prejudice in Sartre's "Réflexions sur la question juive". Analyzes President Mitterrand's TV interview in 1994, in which he claimed that he was unaware, in 1940-41, of the significance of the laws on the status of the Jews. The French Church, on the other hand, has duly repented for its role in the Shoah. Birnbaum traces his experiences as a Jewish child in France during the occupation, and his development into a sociologist specializing in political antisemitism, a form which he argues has developed in France, where the state is strong. Deals with the paradox that the French today assume responsibility for the crimes of Vichy while they banalize the Shoah and question its uniqueness.