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Ego-histories of France and the Second World War pp 67–87Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

On Chance and Necessity

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Part of the book series: The Holocaust and its Contexts ((HOLC))

Abstract

It would be simplistic to assume that Denis Peschanski became a historian of the Second World War in France as a consequence of his parents’ involvement in the French Resistance. However, to overlook or minimise this link would be equally simplistic or unwarranted. Four threads emerge from Peschanski’s ego-history: first, the importance of migrants and foreigners in French history; second, his longstanding commitment to politics, academic boards, the general public and the debates of his time; third, the pleasure of research; and fourth, the widening scope of his research, which, in recent years, has become increasingly collaborative and transdisciplinary to include neuroscience in various memory projects on WWII, 9/11 and the November 2015 Paris attacks.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Editors’ note: The FTP (Francs-Tireurs et Partisans) was a Communist-led armed Resistance organisation open to résistants of all persuasions. Its FTP-MOI section was mainly composed of foreigners. The Affiche rouge (Red Poster)—thus named because of its red background—is one of the most famous propaganda posters in occupied France: its aim was to discredit the Resistance by associating it with criminality, Jews and foreigners.

  2. 2.

    It is reproduced in La Vie à en mourir. Lettres de fusillés, 1941–1944 (Krivopissko with Marcot 2006, 157–160).

  3. 3.

    Minister for Education and Higher Education and Research in the Jospin government (1997–2002; 2000 in his case), Claude Allègre stirred up a massive rebellion in the teaching profession and in research. As member of a CNRS assessment and recruitment committee‚ I was at the forefront of this protest , on the researchers’ side. Incidentally, I twice had occasion to cross swords with him at Socialist Party’s Research committees. He did not like to be contradicted and was convinced that he knew everything. It was hard going. He was eventually demoted by the Prime Minister, his friend Lionel Jospin, in 2000; too late, however, to win back the votes of those who normally supported the Socialist Party. Jospin’s defeat in the presidential elections of 2002 was partly due to this schism.

  4. 4.

    Editors’ note: The ‘normalisation’ of Czechoslovakia follows the Prague Spring (January–August 1968) and refers to the period between August 1968 and 1989 during which the Communist party tightened its grip on the country.

  5. 5.

    In fact, the very authenticity of London’s notes was challenged by Bartosek.

  6. 6.

    Editors’ note: Nikolaus (or Klaus) Barbie was the head of the Gestapo in Lyon between 1942 and 1944. Particularly cruel and directly responsible for the killing of several thousand prisoners, the death of résistant Jean Moulin in July 1943, and the deportation in April 1944 of forty-four Jewish children living in the orphanage of Izieu‚ he was known as the ‘Butcher of Lyon’. After the war, he worked for the US counterintelligence who helped him resettle in Bolivia. He was extradited in 1983 thanks to the action of Serge and Beate Klarsfeld ‚ and was convicted of crimes against humanity in Lyon in 1987.

  7. 7.

    See www.memorial-caen.fr and www.memorialcamprivesaltes.eu.

  8. 8.

    This system is actually even more complex if one includes intermediary institutions like the EPHE or the EHESS, for example, and if one also takes the Grandes Écoles  into account.

  9. 9.

    Josefina Cuesta-Bustillo and Gianni Perona joined later. This led to Pierre Milza and Denis Peschanski , Exils et migrations. Italiens et Espagnols en France 1938–1946 (1995).

  10. 10.

    The main outputs were: Jean-Marc Berlière and Denis Peschanski (eds.), La Police française (1930–1950). Entre bouleversements et permanences (2000); Philippe Buton and Jean-Marie Guillon (eds.), Les Pouvoirs à la Libération (1994); Gilles Le Beguec and Denis Peschanski (eds.), Les Élites locales dans la tourmente, du Front populaire aux années cinquante (2000).

  11. 11.

    David Ben Gourion , Denis Peschanski and Tuvia Friling (eds.), Les Secrets de la création de l’État d’Israël. Journal 1947–1948 (2012).

  12. 12.

    Specialist equipment laboratories, or équipex, are funded by the French State to allow the development of a major technological project (from 2011 to 2019 in this case). See www.matricememory.fr. This project was further developed in 2016 with the launch of a very vast programme (2016–2028, involving 29 partners) entitled ‘13-November’‚ co-led by Francis Eustache ‚ a neuropsychologist‚ and me. The focus here is not on the terrorist attacks themselves but on the memories that they will generate. See www.memoire13novembre.fr.

Indicative Bibliography

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, France

    Denis Peschanski

  2. European Centre for Sociology and Political Science (Université Paris 1, EHESS and CNRS), Paris, France

    Denis Peschanski

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  1. Denis Peschanski
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Correspondence to Denis Peschanski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Manuel Bragança

  2. University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Fransiska Louwagie

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Peschanski, D. (2018). On Chance and Necessity. In: Bragança, M., Louwagie, F. (eds) Ego-histories of France and the Second World War. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70860-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70860-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70859-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70860-7

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