National Policy, Global Memory
BERGHAHN MONOGRAPHS IN FRENCH STUDIES
Editor: Michael Scott Christofferson, Associate Professor and Chair of Department of History, Adelphi University
France has played a central role in the emergence of the modern world. The Great French Revolution of 1789 contributed decisively to political modernity, and the Paris of Baudelaire did the same for culture. Because of its rich intellectual and cultural traditions, republican democracy, imperial past and post-colonial present, twentieth-century experience of decline and renewal, and unique role in world affairs, France and its history remain important today. This series publishes monographs that offer significant methodological and empirical contributions to our understanding of the French experience and its broader role in the making of the modern world.
Volume 1
The Populist Challenge: Political Protest and Ethno-nationalist Mobilization in France
Jens Rydgren
Volume 2
French Intellectuals against the Left: The Antitotalitarian Moment of the 1970s
Michael Scott Christofferson
Volume 3
Sartre against Stalinism
Ian H. Birchall
Volume 4
Sartre, Self-Formation and Masculinities
Jean-Pierre Boul
Volume 5
The Bourgeois Revolution in France 17891815
Henry Heller
Volume 6
Gods Eugenicist: Alexis Carrel and the Sociobiology of Decline
Andrs Horacio Reggiani
Volume 7
France and the Construction of Europe, 19442007: The Geopolitical Imperative
Michael Sutton
Volume 8
Shades of Indignation: Political Scandals in France, Past and Present
Paul Jankowski
Volume 9
Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification
Frdric Bozo
Volume 10
Collective Terms: Race, Culture, and Community in a State-Planned City in France
Beth S. Epstein
Volume 11
France in the Age of Organization: Factory, Home and Nation from the 1920s to Vichy
Jackie Clarke
Volume 12
Building a European Identity: France, the United States, and the Oil Shock, 19731974
Aurlie lisa Gfeller
Volume 13
General de Gaulles Cold War: Challenging American Hegemony, 19631968
Garret Joseph Martin
Volume 14
At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort
Nicole C. Rudolph
Volume 15
National Policy, Global Memory: The Commemoration of the Righteous from Jerusalem to Paris, 19422007
Sarah Gensburger
NATIONAL POLICY, GLOBAL MEMORY
The Commemoration of the Righteous from Jerusalem to Paris, 19422007
Sarah Gensburger
Translated by Katharine Throssell
Published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
English-language edition first published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books with the support of the Fondation pour la Mmoire de la Shoah, Paris
Financial support also provided by the Direction de la Mmoire du Patrimoine et des Archives
English-language edition 2016 Sarah Gensburger
French-language edition 2010 Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Science Politiques
Originally published in 2010, in French, by Les Presses de Sciences Po as Les Justes de France. Politiques publiques de la mmoire by Sarah Gensburger
Translation by Katharine Throssell
All rights reserved.
Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
[to come]
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-78533-254-8 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-1-78533-255-5 (ebook)
To my daughter and her father, who supported me in the writing of this book
CONTENTS
Introduction
From The Righteous among the Nations to the Righteous of France
Chapter 1
Memory as an Instrument of Foreign Policy?
Chapter 2
Memory Entrepreneurs and the French Space
Chapter 3
Memory Public Policy and Transfers
Chapter 4
The National Day as a Public Policy Instrument
Chapter 5
Social Norms and Memorial Categories
Chapter 6
Memory Policy and Institutions
Epilogue
The Righteous of France in the Pantheon
Conclusion
Memory Politics as Public Policy
Appendix A
Methodology and Corpus
Appendix B
Detailed References of Official Texts
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Because of the great diversity of fieldwork sites, languages, and disciplines mobilized in this research, this book received support from so many sources it would be impossible to name them all. My apologies to all those who have not been mentioned specifically; you have not been forgotten.
I would like to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to all those who agreed to meet with me and to tell their stories. I also thank the members of the French Committee for Yad Vashem. I hope that they understand my approach and will find in this book a new perspective on their practices and their environment. Many thanks also to the team at the Department of the Righteous of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for welcoming me during the summer of 2003.
Finally, thanks to all the community groups: Hidden Children (France), Aloumim/Living Memory (Jerusalem), French Association in Honor of the Righteous among the Nations (Paris), Association of the French Righteous for Yad Vashem (Marseille), Claims Conference (New York), Chambon Foundation (Los Angeles), Children of the Holocaust (Warsaw), and the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw). To this list can be added the various political, administrative, and institutional leaders who met with me and sometimes even gave me access to their archives.