From the Capitoline Hill to the Tarpeian Rock? Free French coming out of war

Abstract

This text explores the return of the Free French to metropolitan territory in 1944–45. The intense emotions provoked by rediscovering the soil of France and their compatriots were succeeded by more mixed and even bittersweet feelings. Very soon, dreams dreamed far away and for many years met the reality of a country deeply wounded by the defeat of 1940 and by the Occupation. The takeover of administrative and political power, and the beginnings of the purges, provoked clashes with the Allies and even more with the metropolitan Resistance, which were essentially quarrels of legitimacy. The violence of the fight for the Liberation mercilessly took its toll. Each and every person who had survived the conflict found the resumption of a personal and intimate life more difficult than expected. Finally, some of the hopes for renovation that had been developed throughout the war began to waver. This led to a frustration tinged with bitterness on which contrasting memories took root.