Jewish Suffering in the French Legal Imagination from Vichy to the Fourth Republic

Laws passed under the Vichy regime in 1941 and revised in 1945 under the French provisional government (1944-1946) mandated the denunciation of crimes and penalized failures to rescue persons in peril. They became part of a body of continental law in postwar Europe regarding "duty to rescue&quo...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dean, Carolyn J. 1960- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: AJS review
Year: 2025, Volume: 49, Issue: 1, Pages: 56-82
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Judaism / France / History 1940-1960 / Constitution
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Laws passed under the Vichy regime in 1941 and revised in 1945 under the French provisional government (1944-1946) mandated the denunciation of crimes and penalized failures to rescue persons in peril. They became part of a body of continental law in postwar Europe regarding "duty to rescue" aimed at legislating the moral duties of citizens. This essay argues that the reception of the 1941 law illuminates how bystanders facilitated Jewish political exclusion under the Nazi Occupation. It also shows how the drafting of the 1945 law shaped Jewish inclusion in postwar France. The essay revisits debates about bystanders under Nazi Occupation and postwar French justice to make legible morally culpable acts whose effects are often as elusive to bystanders as they are palpable to Jewish victims. It shows how bystanders enable structural forms of discrimination to which they have no intentional or causal relation, but not by referencing passivity., Abstract:, Laws passed under the Vichy regime in 1941 and revised in 1945 under the French provisional government (1944-1946) mandated the denunciation of crimes and penalized failures to rescue persons in peril. They became part of a body of continental law in postwar Europe regarding "duty to rescue" aimed at legislating the moral duties of citizens. This essay argues that the reception of the 1941 law illuminates how bystanders facilitated Jewish political exclusion under the Nazi Occupation. It also shows how the drafting of the 1945 law shaped Jewish inclusion in postwar France. The essay revisits debates about bystanders under Nazi Occupation and postwar French justice to make legible morally culpable acts whose effects are often as elusive to bystanders as they are palpable to Jewish victims. It shows how bystanders enable structural forms of discrimination to which they have no intentional or causal relation, but not by referencing passivity.
ISSN:1475-4541
Contains:Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/ajs.2025.a958077