A French round-up
Le Pen is up on a charge of 'denying crimes against humanity', based on having remarked that the German occupation had not been particularly inhuman although there were exceptions and he had much to say on Oradour sur Glane. Why Le Pen would wish to downplay the German occupation for a French audience is something of a mystery. Having read about the German pattern of occupation in the West and in the East, the latter certainly had it harder. Some years back I read a book called 'Babi Yar', a memoir of Kiev under German occupation, and it made abundantly clear to me that whereas collaboration in the West was about additional comforts and so forth, in the East it was about basic survival.
Elsewhere, Sarkozy's 'Testimony' is on the way to being a summer best seller and has just gone to its fifth reprint. His publisher comments "The current Minister of the Interior has a 50:50 chance of being the next President of the Republic. People want to know him better and read a personal book where he explains who he is, how he functions. It isn't a manifesto, more 'cards on the table'". Sounds grim, doesn't it?
Update - More on Sarko's book: "His bosses, President Jacques Chirac ("monarchical"), and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin ("ineffective") are damned, and - provocatively - Britain held up as an example to emulate. "We should ask why the English buy our houses in Perigord and the Dordogne," says Sarko. "The answer lies in our relative economic success." Among his more headline-grabbing suggestions is that the French should accept English as the modern world's lingua franca". And if that don't fetch 'em, I don't knowArkansaw Gaul.
And according to Le Figaro, "Five million French feel feel close to Buddhism". I find that a little hard to credit, if we are talking about serious understanding rather than having seen the odd TV documentary on the Dalai Lama.
Le Pen is up on a charge of 'denying crimes against humanity', based on having remarked that the German occupation had not been particularly inhuman although there were exceptions and he had much to say on Oradour sur Glane. Why Le Pen would wish to downplay the German occupation for a French audience is something of a mystery. Having read about the German pattern of occupation in the West and in the East, the latter certainly had it harder. Some years back I read a book called 'Babi Yar', a memoir of Kiev under German occupation, and it made abundantly clear to me that whereas collaboration in the West was about additional comforts and so forth, in the East it was about basic survival.
Elsewhere, Sarkozy's 'Testimony' is on the way to being a summer best seller and has just gone to its fifth reprint. His publisher comments "The current Minister of the Interior has a 50:50 chance of being the next President of the Republic. People want to know him better and read a personal book where he explains who he is, how he functions. It isn't a manifesto, more 'cards on the table'". Sounds grim, doesn't it?
Update - More on Sarko's book: "His bosses, President Jacques Chirac ("monarchical"), and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin ("ineffective") are damned, and - provocatively - Britain held up as an example to emulate. "We should ask why the English buy our houses in Perigord and the Dordogne," says Sarko. "The answer lies in our relative economic success." Among his more headline-grabbing suggestions is that the French should accept English as the modern world's lingua franca". And if that don't fetch 'em, I don't know
And according to Le Figaro, "Five million French feel feel close to Buddhism". I find that a little hard to credit, if we are talking about serious understanding rather than having seen the odd TV documentary on the Dalai Lama.
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Le Pen's take on history is strange indeed.The more worrying is that he's been charged.I'm not a fan of 'thought ' laws.All they seem to do is lead to law abiding citizens while the 'islamofascist freelance murderers' seem to go unharassed........
On Sarkozys book,I have always felt that such books,by the time they are written,the subject is generally past it's sell by date
I'm in agreement with you on that one. While Shoah denial/revisionism has the scope to be extemely distressing, banning it from being voiced presents two major problems: firstly the suggestion that an idea is so toxic that it cannot be rebutted, and secondly that it opens up the possibility of other issues gaining the same status.
PCF - All very true, as was the case in much of occupied Europe. However, one of my pet theories is that the nations of Europe all have sustaining myths about the war. In the case of the Germans it is that they didn't know etc etc, and it was just the lunatics at the top, and for the French etc that the resistance was active from 1940 and made a major difference. And for us, it is the idea that we would have fought to the last man and never have collaborated. Judging by what happened in the Channel Islands, I don't doubt we would have had plenty of enthusiastic quislings and an 'Auschwitz' somewhere on the borders of London.
How can you judge by the Channel Islands? They were instructed by Britain not to resist, all their fighting-age men had been evacuated before the Germans arrived, at one point there were only 3 citizens per German soldier there, and they were bereft of any ground suitable for guerilla warfare.
Or indeed if we remove the Channel Islands from the equation, every other country in occupied Europe saw collaboration to a greater or lesser extent.
The word on the street as to why so much of the material relating to Rudolf Hess is still covered by the Official Secrets Act is because some rather big (if long dead) names would get into the public domain, and we can't have 'the great and the good' being embarassed now can we? I can't pin down the reference, but I've read that the Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII as was) was being lined up as the figurehead ruler in the event of Germany conquering these islands. That is hinted at here.
I enjoyed reading up about Sarkozy's book, he seems quite outspoken about his views (imagine Cameron telling the Brits here that they are workshy and hoping for their vote), and he seemingly wants to get on well with the English, is that a first? Not to be outdone, his Socialist counterpart has a block buster lined up at the end of the summer. It is rivetting stuff, well for me anyway, I guess I'm a saddo.
Well, if Hitle had invaded Britain in 1940, a large chunk of the left would have welcomed him: he was still Stalin's ally.
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