Vichy France for 710
Title: Assimilation and anti-Semitism: Jews in France from 1890-1939
Name: Joseph Kelly
Student Number: 11170843
Name of Course: HI 439
Name of Course Convenor: Dr. Gearóid Barry
Word Count: 2223
Due Date: 07/10/2014
To begin to look at the complex issues arising from the divisions created in France due to xenophobia, we need to go back to the formation of the French republic. When French citizens overthrew the monarchy they were adamant that France would be tolerant of all of its citizens regardless of their political or religious views. Thomas Paine’s Rights of man and citizen (1789) was intended to be the basis of France’s political outlook, ‘no one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.’1 This statement is crucial in understanding why the French government was so tolerant of immigrants and asylum seekers at times of overpopulation.
To get at the root of anti-Semitism in France we need to look at why Jewish people were regarded with such an anxiety. The crash of l'Union Générale in 1882 was attributed to German-Jewish bank owners in a desperate attempt to deflect the poor management of share prices on the stock exchange which ultimately led to a crash in share prices. This type of propaganda was a feature of the French media who seemed determined to use the Jews as a scapegoat for all of Frances problems. Georges Valois a French journalist had influential right-wing theories of the Jewish race and publicly described them almost as a plague that was the ‘plunder of all nations, and their eventual destruction,’2
By the late Nineteenth Century the rights of man
Name: Joseph Kelly
Student Number: 11170843
Name of Course: HI 439
Name of Course Convenor: Dr. Gearóid Barry
Word Count: 2223
Due Date: 07/10/2014
To begin to look at the complex issues arising from the divisions created in France due to xenophobia, we need to go back to the formation of the French republic. When French citizens overthrew the monarchy they were adamant that France would be tolerant of all of its citizens regardless of their political or religious views. Thomas Paine’s Rights of man and citizen (1789) was intended to be the basis of France’s political outlook, ‘no one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.’1 This statement is crucial in understanding why the French government was so tolerant of immigrants and asylum seekers at times of overpopulation.
To get at the root of anti-Semitism in France we need to look at why Jewish people were regarded with such an anxiety. The crash of l'Union Générale in 1882 was attributed to German-Jewish bank owners in a desperate attempt to deflect the poor management of share prices on the stock exchange which ultimately led to a crash in share prices. This type of propaganda was a feature of the French media who seemed determined to use the Jews as a scapegoat for all of Frances problems. Georges Valois a French journalist had influential right-wing theories of the Jewish race and publicly described them almost as a plague that was the ‘plunder of all nations, and their eventual destruction,’2
By the late Nineteenth Century the rights of man
Bibliography: Burgess, Greg, ‘France and the German Refugee Crisis of 1933,’ French History, Vol.16, No.2, 2002 http://fh.oxfordjournals.org.libgate.library.nuigalway.ie/content/16/2/203.full.pdf+html?sid=ccdad5e2-5ee9-4a6a-a9ee-02c9fe460f8f 30/09/2014 10:59 Burgess, Gregg, ‘Refuge in the Land of Liberty. France and its refugees, from the revolution to the end of asylum, 1787-1939,’ Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2008 Marrus, Michael. R, ‘European Jewry and the Politics of Assimilation: Assessment and Reassessment,’ The Journal of Modern History, Vol.49, No.1, 1977 http://www.jstor.org.libgate.library.nuigalway.ie/stable/1878955?seq=2 30/09/2014 14:48 Kalman, Samuel, ‘Reconsidering Fascist Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia in 1920’s France: the Doctrinal Contribution of Georges Valois and the Faisceau,’ French History, Vol.16, No.3, 2002 http://fh.oxfordjournals.org.libgate.library.nuigalway.ie/content/16/3/345.full.pdf+html?sid=968e5687-347c-411d-9228-0e7468acea42 30/09/2014 10:32 Sowerwine, Charles, ‘France since 1870 Culture, Society, and the making of the Republic,’ Second edition, 2009, Palgrave Macmillion, U.K Whyte, George R, ‘The Dreyfus Affair: A Chronological History,’ Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008