Censorship in France During the German Occupation

Abstract

During the German occupation of France the theatre was a place where the Frenchman could, to some extent, rediscover his self-respect, a place where the man in the street could gather courage and the will to resist the invader in innumerable and often totally unexpected ways which often escaped the vigilance of the German censor. The records of the censor have disappeared, as the Germans destroyed the archives of the Propagandastaffel; nor are there any records in the French public archives of plays censored during the German occupation. What does exist, however, are the prompt copies used at the Comédie-Française during the war. A study of the censored passages reveals that it was often the very unlikely and seemingly trivial remarks that, for the reason that they aroused some sort of feeling of resistance in the audience, the occupiers felt had to be cut out. Marcel Thiébaut, commenting on audience reaction during the war, wrote:… on retourna au théâtre … Ce fut d'abord pour y guetter les moindres allusions qui, d'un coup, auraient rendu toute la salle hostile ou complice. On épiait les sous-entendus.