France opens classified Vichy archives to public

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France opens classified Vichy archives to public
Thousands of police and official files are likely to shed light on collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War

By David Chazan, Paris
9:05PM GMT 28 Dec 2015

France has opened to the public formerly classified archives that could shed new light on the deportation of Jews and Resistance fighters under the wartime collaborationist Vichy regime.

More than 200,000 police and government files revealing the inner workings of Vichy France could provide answers for the descendants of Holocaust victims, but some are likely to make uncomfortable reading.

France today continues to have a sensitive and often painful relationship with the history of collaboration by the 1940-1944 administration that helped the Nazis round up 76,000 Jews and Resistance fighters.

 The documents give a detailed picture of how the Vichy government helped the Nazis round up and deport them. The archives also cover the legacy of Vichy after the Liberation and the most recent documents date from 1960.

A handful remain classified, but historian Gilles Morin told French television that he believes the archives now in the public domain will provide new insights into the arrest of Jean Moulin, a resistance leader who died after being captured and tortured by the Germans.

 “So far we’ve relied on witness accounts and they’ve been our main source, but now we’ll be able to read the minutes of meetings, police memos and Resistance documents seized by the police.”

Mr Morin said details were crucial for the descendants of Holocaust victims. “There is also a demand from the children of deportees, and of those who were executed, who want to know - and that’s a legitimate demand.”

Some of the archives were previously available to researchers and journalists who obtained special permission. However, now that 75 years have elapsed since the Vichy regime was formed in 1940, the authorities are obliged under French law to open them to the public.

Since the Second World War, Vichy has borne the stigma of the regime that historians say often surpassed the Nazis’ expectations.

A former Resistance fighter, Lucien Gayot, told local radio: “It was the government’s actions that were unforgivable, not this city’s.”

It was not until 1995 that a French president, Jacques Chirac, officially recognised the “dark hours” of French state involvement in the deportation of Jews. He described the period as “an insult to our past and our traditions”.

More at the Telegraph (U.K.)