The Jews of the Republic: A Political History of State Jews in France from Gambetta to

Vichy by Pierre Birnbaum; Jane Marie Todd

Review by: Lee Shai Weissbach
The American Historical Review, Vol. 103, No. 2 (Apr., 1998), pp. 532-533
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Historical Association
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Reviews of Books

532

analyses of Philippe Machefer (Ligues et fascismes en

France, 1919-1939 [1974]) and Francois Monnet (Refaire la republique:Andre Tardieu,une derive reactionnaire [1993]). At times, he seems more concerned to
refute the partisans charges of the 1930s than to deal
with the more sober scholarly assessments of the
1990s. He does take particular exception to Robert
Soucy's claim, in French Fascism: The Second Wave,
1933-1939 (1995), that La Rocque called for collaboration with Nazi Germany. Given the general vagueness of most of La Rocque's writings, there is more
than one possible reading of his wartime outpourings:
a careful reading of the evidence suggests that Soucy's
argument is not as outrageous as Nobecourt would
have us believe. By contrast, it is hard to argue with his
contention that, upon return from two years of captivity in Germany, La Rocque was shabbily treated by
Charles De Gaulle's government.
At times, Nob6court's passionate defense of La
Rocque makes for strained arguments. He acknowledges that, in 1938, La Rocque called for a commercial
boycott of the Jewish community in Constantine because of the (perfectly understandable) Jewish penchant for voting en bloc for candidates of the Popular
Front. It seems a bit odd to be assured a few lines later
that La Rocque was a principled opponent of political
anti-Semitism. Few readers will be convinced by the
argument that such a boycott was a legitimate assertion of the need to keep religion out of politics. The
author tries gamely to put the best light on La
Rocque's role as a minor functionaryin the early years
of Vichy. But on his own evidence, La Rocque's
impossibly ambiguous stance disappointed both his
rank and file followers and his principal lieutenants,
most of whom abandoned him. Nothing in this book
revises Robert Paxton's memorable account of a "colourless" figure pathetically telephoning everyone in
search of something to do (Vichy France: Old Guard
and New Order,1940-44 [1974]).
The debate about La Rocque and his movement
invariably comes down to the question of fascism.
Nob6court is adamantthat La Rocque was not a fascist
but a social Catholic in the tradition of Louis-HubertGonsalve Lyautey and a forerunner of De Gaulle.
Whatever fascist elements may have been lurking in
the Croix de Feu had left by the time La Rocque
founded the PSF in 1936. This is, of course, the
conventional wisdom, established over forty years ago
by Ren6 R6mond and generally accepted by most
French historians. The dissidents from this judgement
have been non-French historians, many of whom Nob6court has not read and none of whose arguments he
confronts. What constitutes fascism is, of course, notoriously in the eye of the beholder. In an revealing
aside, Nob6court cites the case of Edmond Barrachin,
long one of La Rocque's closest lieutenants. In 1942,
shortly before his defection to the allies, Barrachinwas
engaged in secret discussions with American diplomat,
J. Rives Childs. In the event of a crisis in the Vichy
regime, Barrachin assured Childs, the PSF could offer

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an authoritarian republican alternative, characterized

by a pseudo-parliament, the members of which would
be appointed rather than elected. In his report to his
superiors, Childs pointedly wondered if Barrachin
quite realized that for all his evocation of the French
republican tradition, he was proposing a form of
government that most would consider to be fascist.
Nob6court's impressive effort notwithstanding, many
will continue to wonder if the same could not be said
about La Rocque.
WILLIAM

D.

IRVINE

York University
PIERRE BIRNBAUM. TheJews of the Republic:A Political
Historyof StateJews in Francefrom Gambettato Vichy.
Translated by JANE MARIE TODD. (Stanford Studies in
Jewish History and Culture.) Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1996. Pp. 449. $55.00.

This book explores the experience of the Jewish magistrates, generals, departmental officials, and legislators who occupied top-level government posts in the
French Third Republic. Based on an analysis of the
lives and careers of 171 individuals, the book provides
detailed information not only about prominent public
figures such as Adolph Cr6mieux and L6on Blum but
also about dozens of more obscure high officials and
army officers, or "state Jews," as Pierre Birnbaumcalls
them.
Several of the book's chapters highlight individual
kin groups such as the Brisac family that produced a
series of generals, or the B6darrid&sjudicial dynasty.
Other chapters focus on particularcircles of state Jews
such as those closely associated with L6on Gambetta
or those seen as the heirs of Jules Jaur&s.Still other
chapters explore specific themes, such as the development of a "circle of sociability" that tied many state
Jews to each other, or the way in which the specter of
an anti-Catholic conspiracy was often employed in
attacks on Jewish officials. At its core, however, this
book is an examination of the tension that existed
during the entire period of the Third Republic between the notion that Jews could be equal citizens of
France without having to give up their religious identity and the underlying reality that, even when secular
republicanismwas at its strongest, an undercurrentof
anti-Semitism continued to run through French public
life.
On the one hand, Birnbaum provides ample evidence of the success that most state Jews enjoyed in
their careers, and he demonstrates how they developed
a sort of blind love for French republicanism as it
evolved between the 1870s and the 1930s. On the other
hand, Birnbaum also makes it clear that the careers of
Jewish officials and army officers were always colored
by their religious identity, sometimes in subtle ways (as
when Jewish administratorswere passed over for posts
in strongly Catholic regions), but often more overtly.
Crude anti-Semitic attacks were continually being leveled at Jews across the political spectrum and, indeed,

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Modern Europe
Birnbaum contends that anti-Semitism was a major
feature in all of the "Franco-Frenchwars"of the Third
Republic: not only the Dreyfus Affair, but also the
struggle over the secularization of schools, the turmoil
surroundingGeneral Boulanger, and numerous other,
smaller domestic crises.
At every turn, the Third Republic was labeled a
"Jewish Republic" by its enemies, and it was their
perspective that informed the anti-Semitic legislation
enacted by the Vichy government in 1940 and 1941.
The reaction of state Jews to this legislation poignantly
reflected the conflict between the tradition of Jewish
acceptance in France and the persistence of antiSemitism in the country, for Jewish officials and army
officers could hardly believe that they were being
betrayed by the government of a France they had so
ardently served.
Birnbaum'sstudy is exhaustivelyresearched and full
of interesting insights, but some elements of its argument are a bit weaker than others. For example,
Birnbaumprobably overstates the degree to which the
officials he has studied maintained their connection
with Jewish life. He does show that many of them held
seats on consistorial boards, married within the faith,
and were buried with Jewish rites, but in the end, the
lives of most of the highly acculturated individuals he
discusses were little influenced by Jewish beliefs or
practices.
Perhaps the main problem with this volume, however, is that its style is sometimes rambling and often
repetitious. Birnbaum has a tendency to restate many
of his observations and to refer repeatedly to the same
pieces of evidence. To cite but one example, the
administrator Henri Hendle's confrontation with enemy aircraft in World War I is described at least three
different times in the text, and his citation for bravery
is quoted directly twice (pp. 21, 47, 189). The book is
also hampered by Jane Marie Todd's less than elegant
translation.
In its original French version, this volume is titled
Les Fous de la Republic(1992), and several times in the
book, Birnbaum evokes the image of the fool in a
king's court who, although originally a target of ridicule, is totally devoted to the monarch he serves and
often becomes his close and trusted confidant. Birnbaum argues that Jewish officials in the Third Republic
followed an opposite course: they began as trusted
servants of the state but ended up as the victims of
abuse and persecution under Vichy. How well the
image of the fool fits the state Jews of the Third
Republic can certainly be debated further, but anyone
wishing to consider this question cannot possibly do so
without taking into account Birnbaum's extremely
valuable study.
LEE SHAI WEISSBACH

Universityof Louisville
MARY NASH. Defying Male Civilization: Women in the
Spanish Civil War. (Women and Modern Revolution

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533

Series.) Denver: Arden Press. 1996. Pp. xvi, 261. Cloth

$32.00, paper $22.50.
Mary Nash is a major expert on the subject of Spanish
women and the Spanish civil war, and she has dedicated over twenty years to unearthing data on the
topic. This book is the culmination of those many years
of research, and Nash's goal of examining the "dynamics of gender power relations" (p. 2) is carried out with
skill and rigor.
Nash's scrutinizing and balanced historical vision
leads her to debunk the myths about female activists
during the war. As she has consistently maintained, the
many images of women at the front lines and working
in "men's"jobs have distorted historical fact about the
role of women in the civil war. The controversial issue
of the milicianas, the spontaneous

foot soldier phe-

nomenon that sprang to life in the early days of the

war, is a case in point. Although there are many photos
of the female soldiers in overalls and carryingweapons
(no one has been able to ascertain how many actually
went to the front lines), their careers as soldiers were
brief and often insignificant. Many of them, in fact,
often were relegated to "women's work," such as
cooking and laundering for the male soldiers. Nash
argues that they were called back from the front lines
a few months after the war began for a variety of
reasons, among them claims that the milicianas were

prostitutes and were spreading venereal disease. The

most pervasive reason, however, was that the female
sector of militants agreed that women's place was at
the "home front." In fact, Nash insists that none of the
changes the war brought on were lasting and that the
perception of women in Spain was not significantly
altered by the war.
Nevertheless, Nash goes on to reveal that the potential for major change did exist, given the energy that
various proletariat women's groups displayed in their
mobilization of the female sector during the war. She
analyzes the inner workings of the groups that evolved
from the prewar communist Antifascist Women's Organization, which had the largest membership. Presided over by the most famous woman from the war,
Dolores Ibarruri (known as La Pasionaria), these
groups served primarilyto direct female activityfor the
"cause" at the home front.
Nash's past research has largely concentrated on the
anarchist Free Women organization, the only group
that had a feminist platform during the war. Here she
outlines their commitment to the struggle as women
and as revolutionaries; ironically, in spite of the fact
that the male anarchists rejected their feminist goals,
Free Women built a solid constituency and made
significant advances in their struggle for female emancipation during the war. The Free Women organization challenged established gender and class notions; a
unique movement that even fought against prostitution, Free Women appears as a major anomaly among
the organizations that were largely working for the
"cause" and not for female liberation.

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