Premium
The French Churches and the Jewish Question: July 1940 — March 1941
Author(s) -
Adler Jacques
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8497.00102
Subject(s) - antisemitism , deportation , conviction , silence , judaism , law , racism , political science , the holocaust , economic justice , world war ii , religious studies , immigration , criminology , history , sociology , art , philosophy , archaeology , aesthetics
This article examines why, following the military defeat of June 1940, the French Catholic Church remained silent as race laws were introduced, whereas before the war it had publicly rejected racism and opposed antisemitism. A number of reasons accounted for it. A strong conviction prevailed in its ranks that the regime which had then emerged offered a unique opportunity to resume preeminence in French society and regain rights formerly denied under the Republic. It took two years for members of the clergy to recognise that by its prolonged silence the Church had in fact jettisoned its traditional views on ‘justice and charity’ for all men. It was only after the deportation to the death camps of over fifty thousand Jews that it finally raised its voice up on their behalf.