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The Holocaust and French Historical Culture, 1945–65 pp 22–42Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

French –Jewish Relations and Historical Culture

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

Abstract

The construction of Holocaust history did not begin from scratch in post-war Europe. Attitudes towards the recent past were formed by both contemporary politics and more persistent political and cultural trends shaped over a long time. Such deep structures, embedded in cultural frameworks, go some way to explain why the significance and meaning of the Holocaust has varied from one nation to another and why it has sparked such different responses. The present chapter will give a contextual background to the situation in France by illuminating how republican nationalism from the time of the French Revolution has formed French –Jewish relations and representations of minorities in the country’s historical culture in an enduring fashion. There are similarities between the reactions to the Dreyfus Affair and the Holocaust that only can be understood if one approaches the structural features of historical culture. By connecting historical culture to ideology, such aspects become visible, for French nationalism consists of certain, largely homogenous notions that have informed perceptions of the past over a long period of time. Previous research on the subject has also stressed the French brand of republicanism, with its emphasis on secularism, as an important factor in the delay in addressing the Holocaust.1

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Notes

  1. Notes 2 French –Jewish relations and historical culture

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  1. Uppsala University, Sweden

    Johannes Heuman

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Heuman, J. (2015). French –Jewish Relations and Historical Culture. In: The Holocaust and French Historical Culture, 1945–65. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137529336_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137529336_2

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57586-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52933-6

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