Charles de Gaulle, leader of“Free France” in 1940, a symbol of the Resistance abroad, and head of the GPRF, acted on several fronts: internationally, by drawing closer to the USSR to avoid American influence; and in France, by minimizing the influence of communists and foreigners. Nor do the Provisional Government and its successors mention the role of soldiers from the Maghreb or the West Indies, nor that of the colonial troops from sub-Saharan Africa in the “Free French” army.
The ruling regime underestimated the Pétainist regime, viewing it as a temporary usurpation. It portrayed collaboration as a minority phenomenon and carried out a limited purge following the Liberation. The involvement of French civil servants in repression, plunder, persecution, and deportation was quickly swept under the rug.
The myth of a united French Resistance, entirely opposed to the Germans and the collaborationist Vichy regime, was promoted by the Provisional Government, which claimed credit for the entire history of the resistance struggle. The reality of the country’s collaborationist past during the Occupation was not publicly revealed until much later.
In 1944–1945, the Communist Party presented itself as the “Party of the Executed.” It fought against the Occupying Forces in coordination with other Resistance movements. To ensure the country’s unity in the face of the rest of the world and to implement the measures recommended by the CNR, it joined the government.
The Communist Party seeks to “nationalize” its own memory. Despite the important role played by the M.O.I., it contributed significantly, alongside de Gaulle, to the creation of a national narrative—one that is distinctly French, military, and masculine—from which foreigners are excluded.
As soon as the war ended, the efforts of Jewish immigrant Resistance fighters were marginalized, if not ignored altogether. France was deprived of an indisputable part of its society: Resistance fighters—both men and women—who, more than ever, were determined to be regarded as equal to Resistance fighters of French origin. The older generation respected national unity. As for the younger generation, born in France, they felt French above all else.
The primary concern of genocide survivors was their integration into the national community from which they had been excluded. In the years following the Liberation, they found a society that was largely unreceptive to their testimonies, and they themselves struggled to recount the horrors they had endured. The memory of Jewish resistance was overshadowed or lost amid the broader recollection of the persecution. As time went on, survivors—supported by their organizations—began to share their stories of their role in the Resistance and the conditions of their internment and deportation.
It was not until President Jacques Chirac’s speech in 1995 that the crimes of the Vichy government, which was subservient to the Nazis, were officially condemned by the French Republic.
The commitment of the Resistance fighters from the Jewish section of the M.O.I. to the Liberation of France is now part of the work of historical research and remembrance undertaken by MRJ-M.O.I. through this museum.
