Vichy France and its leader—Marshal Philippe Pétain, a World War I hero who wanted no more war—pursued a double mission. Internally, Vichy punished those whom it blamed for France’s defeat (Jews, the left) and created a new authoritarian order. “Family, Work, Fatherland” replaced the defeated Third Republic’s motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” Externally, convinced that Hitler had won, Marshal Pétain collaborated with the new Nazi Europe. Generally respected at first, Pétain came to be seen as a puppet of the Nazis, who in November 1942 moved into the previously unoccupied areas of France. Resistance grew until, by the time of liberation in August 1944, a divided France had begun to reassemble around Free French General Charles de Gaulle. The years 1940–44 were filled with woe for all French people: material woes of scarcity and constraint; psychic woes of fear, separation from loved ones, humiliation, and powerlessness. Writers and publishers were particularly affected. Freedom of expression, almost achieved after centuries of struggle, was suddenly set aside. Vichy attacked mauvais maîtres, “false teachers,” like André Gide, whose message of unlimited personal freedom it blamed for France’s decline. It penalized its political and racial “enemies.” Writers faced weighty choices. Even doing nothing was a choice, but silence would leave French culture without a voice. French people expected intellectuals to offer moral guidance in a troubled time. Should they collaborate? Resist? Wait and see? Take refuge in pure art? Or follow some more complicated pathway through the changing course of the war? Today, newly opened archives permit a more nuanced view of the situation than the old image of all-powerful Nazis and supine French. International scholarship, French included, now reveals the autonomous political and cultural program of Vichy; Hitler’s desire, at least at first, to be spared the expense and effort of direct control; and the growing reality of French resistance. Between Collaboration and Resistance assembles often unique and largely unpublished contemporary manuscripts, diaries, and letters, as well as maps, photographs, and other material, drawn largely from the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) in Caen, supplemented by materials from The New York Public Library, the Mémorial de Caen, and other private and public collections. These documents show in dramatic and sometimes intimate detail what life was like for writers and publishers in Nazi-occupied France. Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor Emeritus, Columbia University Guest Curator for The New York Public Library Olivier Corpet, Director, IMEC Claire Paulhan, Curator, IMEC This exhibition has been organized by the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) and The New York Public Library, with the cooperation of the Mémorial de Caen.
Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani and Adam Bartos, Jonathan Altman, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.
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