The Dreyfus Affair in Vichy France: Past and Present in French Political Culture

Abstract

Abstract On November 3, 1940, La France au travail, a collaborationist daily, printed a six column headline reading “A Dreyfus Affair-Never Again!” Such optimism was the result of an order from the Ministry of War forbidding Jews, in application of the law of October 3, 1940-the first Statut des Juifs under the Vichy regime-to volunteer or reenlist in the French armed forces. Those who volunteered had to be French a titre originaire, the son of a French father or, failing this, a direct descendent of someone who had fought in the First World War. The statute prohibited Jews from becoming officers (even noncommissioned), but did not prevent them from being privates. The ministerial order that described the application of the law to the French army sounded like vengeance for the “Affair.”