Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44 (Comparative Politics and International Studies)

History

Sémelin, Jacques

Europe

Oxford University Press

How can we comprehend the sociopolitical processes that give rise to extreme violence, ethnic cleansing, or genocide? A major breakthrough in comparative analysis, Purify and Destroy demonstrates that it is indeed possible to compare the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina while respecting the specificities of each appalling phenomenon. Jacques Semelin achieves this, in part, by leading his readers through the three examples simultaneously, the unraveling of which sometimes converges but most often diverges. Semelin's method is multidisciplinary, relying not only on contemporary history but also on social psychology and political science. Based on the seminal distinction between massacre and genocide, Purify and Destroy identifies the main steps of a general process of destruction, both rational and irrational, born of what Semelin terms "delusional rationality." He describes a dynamic structural model with, at its core, the matrix of a social imaginaire that, responding to fears, resentments, and utopias, carves and recarves the social body by eliminating "the enemy." Semelin identifies the main stages that can lead to a genocidal process and explains how ordinary people can become perpetrators. He develops an intellectual framework to analyze the entire spectrum of mass violence, including terrorism, in the twentieth century and before. Strongly critical of today's political instrumentalization of the "genocide" notion, Semelin urges genocide research to stand back from legal and normative definitions and come of age as a discipline in its own right in the social sciences.

Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide (The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Columbia University Press

Unarmed Against Hitler: Civilian Resistance in Europe, 1939-1943

Resistance in German-occupied Europe is generally understood as insurrectional violence. However, as soon as the war broke out, thousands of people engaged in civil disobedience---manifested through strikes, demonstrations, and the activities of medical organizations, courts of law, and churches. Jacques Semelin gathers evidence for the untold story of a movement that took place in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Germany itself. A widespread campaign contested authority and paved the way for later armed resistance and the eventual defeat of the Nazis.This study goes beyond historical interest. It is ethical in scope and deals with civilian strategy at large. To what extent is society prepared to face aggression, whether external or internal? As such, it is of value not only to military historians and other students of World War II, but it provides thoughtful approaches for political scientists and others concerned with contemporary issues of violence and civil disobedience.

Praeger

Resistance in German-occupied Europe is generally understood as insurrectional violence. However, as soon as the war broke out, thousands of people engaged in civil disobedience---manifested through strikes, demonstrations, and the activities of medical organizations, courts of law, and churches. Jacques Semelin gathers evidence for the untold story of a movement that took place in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Germany itself. A widespread campaign contested authority and paved the way for later armed resistance and the eventual defeat of the Nazis.
This study goes beyond historical interest. It is ethical in scope and deals with civilian strategy at large. To what extent is society prepared to face aggression, whether external or internal? As such, it is of value not only to military historians and other students of World War II, but it provides thoughtful approaches for political scientists and others concerned with contemporary issues of violence and civil disobedience.

Nonviolence Explained to My Children

French scholar Jacques Semelin has been working on the issues of violence and non-violent action for almost twenty years, and he’s found that most of the questions children ask about this subject deal with day-to-day life: If someone hassles me, what should I do? How do I deal with bullies at school? What if someone attacks me sexually? What about violent kids? Racism? Non-Violence Explained to My Children, following Semelin’s answers to his daughters’ nearly seventy questions, provides concrete responses to a myriad of conflict situations from an ethical and historical perspective. In a clear and accessible manner in conversational format, Semelin explains that non-violence is not passivity, but instead a way of being and a way of acting that seeks to resolve conflicts, fight injustice, and build lasting peace. He provides examples from the U.S. civil rights movement, Solidarity in Poland, and Tiananmen Square in China and the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mohandas Gandhi and others. Non-Violence Explained to My Children will be an invaluable aid to parents and adults who want to teach children to express themselves and deal with all types of conflict in a non-violent way.

Self-Help

Relationships

MARLOWE & COMPANY *

Purify Or Destroy

Hurst and Company

Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide

C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd.

Persécutions et entraides dans la France occupée

Military

ARENES

La résistance aux génocides

GENSBURGER, Sarah

ANDRIEU, Claire

Politics & Government

SCIENCES PO

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