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The Sorrow, the Pity, and the Justice
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11489 |
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BOOK WORLD
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10 / 1986 |
3,381 Words |
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Peter Dembowski
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THE PURGE
Herbert R. Lottman
New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1986
pp. 332, $19.95
This is certainly an important book because of what it says, and even more, because of what it implies. In a narrow sense it deals with the punishment, or more exactly the epuration, 'purification' or 'purge' of those French men and women who were known or suspected to have collaborated with the Germans during World War II. In a broader sense, The Purge touches upon some of the fundamental aspects of political life in our own times. Lottman, certainly aware of these broader implications, does not stress them. Instead he concentrates on presenting a calm and orderly (but not necessarily unbiased) view of what happened to the hated collabos. There is no doubt in my mind that for the American reader in 1986, the importance of this book lies in drawing attention to the immense political, legal, and moral problems in defining "collaboration" with a totalitarian government and, above all, in devising retribution for it.
Lottman is the European correspondent of Publishers Weekly. As an author of books on Camus, Petain and the intellectual life of the Left Bank, he is certainly well prepared for his task. Whether he deals with battlefield justice or more legal court proceedings, he is fully aware of the difficulties of his undertaking. He refers eloquently to the difficulties in assessing the battlefield purges, but his statement can really apply to the whole book:
The first purification was carried out on the battlefield, and this battlefield was everywhere in France. The purifiers - call them law enforcers, executioners - were resistance partisans, some of them strictly disciplined, others informally organized, untrained. Their targets were first of all the enemy occupation forces - army, police, and, when possible, agents of the Gestapo; but French men and women believed to be collaborating with the enemy were also fair game. Sometimes these targets were clearly identifiable by their uniform, or by their presence in the headquarters of German or collaborationist units. But at other times the persons to be punished were isolated individuals considered dangerous to the resistance or the Free French cause. Often, but not always, candidates for this battlefield purification were investigated, interrogated when captured, even tried by field court martial. In a few cases alleged collaborators were the subjects of secret indictments, of in absentia trials. Whatever the procedure, the death sentences subsequently carried out were summary executions. Because of secrecy, the uncertain legality of the procedure, these summary executions have given birth to the myths which have drowned out attempts to present a sober record. But let us try.
Lottman speaks here about the myth of innocence which invariably mitigates the punishment of a political collaborationist. For it is a fundamental fact of political life in the twentieth century that personal responsibility in a totalitarian society diminishes in proportion to the degree of totalitarianism. This almost universal refusal to accept any responsibility for one's political actions in the situation of collaboration throws light on yet another fact of modern political life: propaganda.
Totalitarian
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