It is interesting that the French even before the war had struggled with the Jewish question. The absence of their own home land had placed Jews in a precarious position in that they were usually viewed in almost all societies as outsiders who infiltrated societies and consumed jobs that otherwise would have gone to natives of a particular society. University of Melbourne Professor Jacques Adler conducted a study titled “The Jews and Vichy: Reflections on French Historiography” in which he examined the state of current research on the fate of the Jews under the Vichy regime. Dr. Adler points out that a significant number of post war studies conducted by native French and foreign scholars have examined the persecution of Jews by the Vichy regime which was hitherto ignored during the period immediately following the war. However, even though these studies provided significant contributions and insight into the nature of the Vichy regime, as to the Jewish question, there is still work to be done before this chapter of French history is closed. Dr. Adler cites the works of French historian Henry Rousso. As previously discussed in this essay, Rousso wrote an analysis of French attitudes to the Vichy regime and argued that France had still not come to terms with that period.[43] Dr. Adler wrote: “In general historians agree on ideological and structural changes that Vichy introduced in the years 1940 to 1944. However, the support those changes received from some sectors of French society has only been partially studied.”[44] The Vichy government was supported by many professional associations and most of the middle-class but little has been studied about the role of the Catholic Church. The episcopate was in favor of the Vichy regime because it perceived that the regime would strive to re-Christianize France. Did that mean that collaboration with Germany to eliminate French Jewry was condoned?
Dr. Adler points out Cornell Professor Dr. Vicki Caron’s study of French immigration policies adopted during the 1930s as a source on the pre-war and wartime activities of the medical, the legal, and other professional groups in France. In Adler’s view, Caron’s study accentuated the uncomfortable issue of continuity between the pre-1940 period and the Vichy years. Dr. Caron’s research suggested that during the last years of the Third Republic that Vichy’s anti-Jewish policies were born and then carried on under the Vichy regime. During the pre-war years, it was the middle class and the professional class that pressured the government of the Third Republic to introduce restrictive measures aimed at foreign Jews in particular. However, the success of that pressure was limited. Importantly, Caron points out that the Vichy regime not only agreed with the pressure exerted by the professional and middle classes but was willing to carry out restrictions not only against foreign Jews but also against French Jews.[45]
Dr. Adler wrote: “Of a Jewish population of roughly 330,000 in July 1940, three-quarters survived. Without some contact and support from the French people, that could not have happened.”[46] This provides additional evidence that a significant segment of the French population was not in line with the extreme right or the policies of the Nazis and more inclined to favor the Allied cause over that of the Nazis and the Axis powers.