Trudy Gold
1918-1940 and the Jews

Trudy Gold - 1918-1940 and the Jews

- Well, good evening everyone. And today, I’m going to be looking at France, 1918 to 1940. But before I do that, I want just to address a few comments to the end of the decade I was looking at last time, that is France 1900 to 1914. Now, you need to remember, it was a period of stagnation. There was no population growth. France was easily outstripped by both Britain and Germany in terms of economic production. There was also the separation of church and state. This is very important. As I said to you on Tuesday, on one level, the won. It was the liberal republic. Despite the economic uncertainty, it was still a great cultural city. It was a great intellectual city. And also from 1881 onwards, there’d been an influx of Ostjuden. What was fascinating, this happens to every Jewish community. The original French community attempted to make them into Frenchmen. By 1900, the Jews of France were more and more urbanised, and over 1/3 of the 2/3 of them are living in Paris. Now, as far as the separation of church and state was concerned, which caused great pain to the Catholics, the Monarchists and the right. As far as the Jews are concerned, it meant that new Jewish organisations could be organised outside of the consistory history system. And in 1906, you had the union, the liberal union of Israelites that very much provided for the upper class acculturated Jews.

And basically for them, they were first and foremost Frenchmen. The synagogue was just for rights of passage. It was the immigrants. And particularly after the end of World War I, there’s another influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe because of the terrible, terrible problems that beset the Jews of Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Cyrus Empire. Just think about it, pilgrims in the Ukraine, civil war in Poland, Lithuania going independent, the Cyrus Empire totally collapsing, and of course, tragically Jews were often the major targets. So what happens is that Jews go on the move, they go to France, they go to Germany, but more and more there is pressure to close the doors. But what happened in France was of course the immigrants found their own institutions. Many of them were left wing, Buddhism absolutely flourished, and here you see a little girl playing with rags because they went into the rag trade. Settled around the maret, the rag trade becomes a very, very Jewish institution, and they set up their own landsmanshaft. And so and in 1923, they set up the Society of Jews of France. Now, there’s a huge divide at this stage between the old community and the young community. The old community believed that the young community, the New Eastern European Jewish community, they’re foreign, they speak with foreign accent, they are not French. And they’re going to see, they’re going to believe that the anti-Semitism was that we are going to find is directed against them. And then of course, the horror of the first World War. I’m going to give you figures.

I often find that figures mask tragedy, but sometimes you just have to take it. 1,322,000 French soldiers perished, 16% of all French soldiers who were mobilised. It was the highest proportion from any country. And 42% of them had come from rural backgrounds. Of young men aged 20, in 1914, over 25% were killed. If you want to scale of the tragedy, there were 600,000 widows who were available for state pension. Also, think of the drain on the state, 750,000 orphans. Over 3 million Frenchmen had been wounded. At least a third of them suffered from a permanent disability. More than 125,000 lost limbs. And a further 50,000 of them were blinded. So you can understand the sort of horror. They come back to France, and after all France was on the victorious side. And what did they find? They found a ribbon society. There was also a shortage of manpower. And of course the Ostjuden are going to, in many ways, help with that. But the social structure of France does not make any difference. It doesn’t become in any way flexible. The bourgeoisie also suffered 19% of the officer class as opposed to 16% of those perished, so, and then as though matters weren’t bad enough. And when we look at the same period in Germany, you’re going to see very much the same horror story.

There’s a pandemic. There’s massive strikes and serious social unrest, particularly from the extreme left, because don’t forget what’s going on in the rest of Europe. Revolution in Russia, revolution in Berlin, revolution in Munich, Saxony, revolution in Vienna, revolution in Hungary. It spreads, it spreads, it spread. And there was this belief that maybe communism could hit France. It took 17,000 French troops to suppress the riots. There was a short period of respite, because the Germans, of course, had to pay in blood, one of the problems that later led to the Second World War. And the German reparations and the French occupation did help the economy a little bit, but then again, in 1929, Wall Street crashes, and by the 30s, output and production had dropped by 1/5. So we’re going to see the polarisation of politics. We’re going to see very, very dark times. And look, it’s a truism of history. How often do you have to examine history to look at this truism? When there is economic horror, what happens? There’s a polarisation of politics. People tend to look for extreme solutions. And exactly the same thing is going to happen in France. But having said that, and I never want you to lose sight of the fact that there are two Frances. There is the France of the intelligentsia and the France of the rights of man, and it’s actually exemplified by some extraordinary individuals.

Now, some Jews, some Gentiles, but I am going to pick on the Jews because I want you to see how much they saw themselves as part of France and how much they gave to France. So I thought it would be interesting, and I discussed this a lot with Wendy and we all agree, I’ve discussed it with my colleagues, personalised, personalised, post personalised. See these periods of history through people. And I’m going to, can I have the next slide, please, Oliver. I want to come now to Mark Bloch, an extraordinary man. He was one of the most important historians of the whole of the 20th century. He created the Annales School of History, stressed the importance of social history. Social history is the, if you like, the yeast that ties everything together. He specialised in mediaeval history and he published widely. He was the professor at the University of Strasbourg, at Paris, Montpellier. He’d been born in Lyon to an Alsatian Jewish family. He’d been raised in Paris, where his father, Gustave Bloch, had taught at the Sorbonne. He had a far better secular education than a Jewish education. He was very affected by the Dreyfus affair as a young man, because, remember, it’s not resolved till 1906. And also his family was very much affected by it. And you can understand what a topic of conversation it must have been. Remember it was the division of France with a Jew at the middle of it.

What was interesting about Bloch, he looked at sources and he convinced that even objective sources were not good enough for factual information you had. What was an objective source? He really looked at the whole nature of history. When he was a student, he was always at the head of his class. World War I, of course, he fought for France. He got his PhD in 1918 and he began to publish these great Annales of history, economic and social history. And also something else that was so important and has been taken up by so many other historians. He stressed the importance of a multi-discipline approach to history. You need to look at the geography, the sociology, economics. That’s one of the reason it’s interesting. That’s what myself and my colleagues have been trying to do at lockdown. We all approached the same period through our own disciplines. And of course, you cannot teach one in a vacuum. He was very interested and influenced by Durkheim, who I’m going to go on to in a minute. Now, of course, he was there for all the horrors of the 20s and 30s, which I’m going to talk about soon. And when France was defeated, he desperately tried to get to America. He was unable to secure passage. He fled Paris. And the Nazis, of course, what they did was they raided his library. He managed to work at Montpellier in Vichy France.

He was one of the few Jews allowed to keep his post. And I’ll be talking a lot about the role of Vichy and Jews next week. And of course under Vichy, although there’s going to be terrible repression of the Jews, he, as one of the most famous historians in the world, is still allowed to practise his craft. But November, 1942, the German army marches into Vichy and that is when there’s a problem, he joins the resistance, he becomes very important to them as a courier, he had loads of languages, a translator, and he worked alongside a very great hero of France in the French resistance, a man called Jean Moulin. More about him very soon, a great, great hero. He, and of course in Lyon, you have that appalling butcher, Klaus Barbie. Again, more about him next week. He was betrayed. He was tortured in the prison actually by Barbie. And according to a witness who survived, Bloch actually spent his last moments comforting a 16 year boy. They were about to be shot and he looked after the boy. And after the war, there was a special memorial service for him and his own words were read. And I’m going to read them too, because I think it gives you a notion of was everything to the French Jews. In the papers he left, he acknowledged his Jewish ancestry, he denied religion, and he said, “I am first and foremost a Frenchman.” And he said this, “I have felt myself to be French before anything else. I was born in France. I have drunk the waters of her culture. I have made her past my own.” He was one of the greatest historians of French history. “I breath freely only in her climate, and I’ve done my best with others to defend her interests.”

And his last words, which were read of course at the memorial service. “I have loved the truth.” So in a way, this incredibly clever man who gave everything to France and the horror of his ends and also the whole issue of what it means to be a Jew. Go back to the French Revolution, which we looked at a few weeks ago. Go back to a Napoleon. He said, “You are Frenchmen of the Jewish religion. You are Israelites, but you are Frenchmen.” And what these characters are caught up in, they fall in love with the French Revolution. They fall in love, not the reign of terror, but they fall in love with liberty, equality, fraternity and they give so much to France. Let’s have a look at the next great individual, Emil Durkheim. I mean, oh, we’ve lost most of his face. Is that possible to bring it over a bit, Oliver, do you think? Anyway, oh dear. Nevermind. His dates are 1858 to 1917. He is the man who established the academic discipline of sociology. And he’s one of the main architects of modern social sciences along with Karl Marx, another Jew, albeit a renegade Jew. So again, you’ve got these outsiders who want to contribute. He was fascinated because he was fascinated by human social behaviour. And he said, “How can societies maintain their coherence in the modern world in an era,” now this is the key, “and maybe it took the Jewish outsider to spot it in which traditional social and religious ties are becoming less and less relevant.”

Can you imagine how the Catholic church and the rights and the Monarchists and the military viewed this man? To them, it is scandalous. He established the first European Department of Sociology, and he was the first professor of sociology. His first great work is the suicide, ‘cause He’s also fascinated at the number of suicides at the turn of the century. It happened in Vienna. It happened in Berlin. It happened in France. What was that phrase of Karl Kraus, the Viennese satirist? And then the end of the century was an experimental station on the way to the end of the world. Yet what was Durkheim’s background? A long tradition of rabbis. He began his education in the yeshiva. He left, he led a secular life and he believed that religious phenomena did not spring from the divine, but social factors. He believed that we create religion because we need it as a cohesive force in the community. However, he was a gentleman and he loved his family and he never severed ties with them or with the community. And most of his, ironically, and why shouldn’t this surprise us? Most of his prominent collaborators and students were Jewish, including Marcel Mauss, who was known as the Father of the French Ethnology. His nephew, Claude Levi-Strauss, was the Father of Structural Anthropology. Deep structures exist in all societies. Again, the outsider looking in. Also, when he switched from yeshiva to the secular, it called superior, his classmate and close friend was a man called Henri Bergson.

So you see, this is problematic because you have these very clever outside Jews who within the French liberal tradition, because don’t forget, there’s a lot of French liberals, a lot of French leftists, French intellectuals, they are also espousing these ideas. But it’s the Jew, the outsider who’s going to be pinpointed. Did Durkheim see himself as a Jew? Did Mark Bloch? Do they saw themselves as French? Can we go on to Bergson, please? Oliver, can we see the next slide? Yes, Henry Bergson, his father was a Polish Jew. I don’t if it’s possible to bring the slides more central. His dates are 1859 to 1941. His father’s family’s name was Bereksohn. His mother’s name was Catherine Levinson. She was of Irish English Jewish background originally of course from Eastern Europe. And the family, he came from a family of entrepreneurs, bankers. The family lived in London for a few years and after his birth, they moved back to France. He married, interesting man. Again, gives you a notion of French Jewish, upper middle class life. He married Louise Neuberger, who was the cousin of Marcel Proust in 1891, and Proust was best man at the wedding. He had a religious education, but then theory of evolution shatters his fate. He is another one of these , these boys of yeshiva background or even the family yeshiva background. We are going to be looking at this whole notion of genetic inheritance. Friends of mine in America are going to look for experts because it is absolutely fascinating that you have a disproportionate number of these characters who plunge into modernity. And so many of them, their families have this yeshiva background.

He was this absolute . He won prizes for maths and sciences. And unfortunately to the absolute dismay of his teachers, he decides the humanities are more important. He took his PhD at the University of Paris in analytical philosophy. And he becomes, he takes the share. He then, by 1900, he has a chair in philosophy at the College of France, chair in Greek and Roman philosophy, then the chair of modern philosophy. He was internationally, as you all, I’m sure you all know, he was internationally famous. He lectured in America. He lectured in England. He was a member of the Academie francaise, president of the Academy of Sciences. You see, this is the point, the Academie francaise, the 40 Immortals, there are many Jews amongst them. And as I said to you last week, don’t forget that France has Jewish Prime ministers. France has a lot of Jews in high positions in the cabinet. What is the real France? He was awarded the Legion d'honneur. Ironically, or is it ironic, the Roman Catholic Church banned his books because they said he was a pantheist, he’s on the papal index. 1922, he’s president of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Now, I’ve mentioned this before in other lectures because other members were Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and you will remember them. In 1929, Einstein went into debate with Freud on the nature of war.

Anyway, he went into debate with Einstein in 1922 fascinating Einstein in Weimar, him in Paris, all these events swirling around their heads and yet they continue with this extraordinary intellectual tradition. And in 1927, he does win the Nobel Prize for literature. He does begin to think about conversion to Catholicism. He talks about it in the will he lay, he leaves. He didn’t, but then the rise of fascism in Germany, the rise of antisemitism and right wing fascism in France. And he said, “I don’t want to leave the post persecuted.” Now, fter the fall of France, he is required to register with the police. And he wrote, academic philosopher, Nobel Prize winner and Jew. He renounced all honours awarded him rather than accept. Vichy offered him all sorts of exemptions because they did have their special Jews. He refused. On the 3rd of January, 1941, he died from natural causes. And at his death, per his request, a Catholic priest did issue the last rights. So here we have extraordinary individuals. I had to choose three. I could have mentioned many others. And it’s really down to you to read the biographies, because isn’t it interesting when society is under threat? Quite often the ideas absolutely flow. A very close friend of mine who is very, very cynical, she said to me, “The problem with our society, we’re going through huge change, but somehow the culture seems very sub, the 20s and 30s.” That’s for you to decide. And now I have to go straight to the right and I’m going to mention Charles Maurras, who I’ve already talked about, if you remember. Can we go on?

There he is. Ollie, is there any way of bringing them more centre? It doesn’t matter. You get a picture. He was brought up by, he of course is going the organiser, he creates Action francaise,, which is the umbrella fascist organisation. Again, he comes from the extreme right, the Catholic right. He’s brought up by a mother and a grandmother. He is a very clever, wealthy man, Paris literary critic for the Catholic Review. He worked for Maurice Barres, who I mentioned to you last time in La Cocarde. As you already know, he was very anti-Dreyfus. He endorsed on Henry’s forgery, and he was the one who proclaimed that Dreyfus should have been sacrificed over national unity. He vilified the Jewish republic. He believed in radical state anti-Semitism. And it’s in 1899 that he found Action francaise,. It starts as a newspaper that had been created the previous year. And he edit the review in Action francaise and it becomes a daily paper. It had a huge readership at the time of the separation of church and state, because a lot of people were very, very upset about this. You’ve got to remember, Catholic France, although as Williams already pointed out, Catholicism was on the wane. And in 1905, when Camelots du Roi was initiated, he believed very strongly in positive political activism through extra parliamentary leagues. He didn’t have any faith in the parliamentary system at all. Camelots du Roi was actually established in the beginning to dispense the newspapers, young men, and of course later on it’s going to become a very thuggish organisation. He endorsed World War I though. He saw himself as a very loyal Frenchman despite the Republican leader, Clemenceau.

He criticised the Treaty of Versailles. He said it’s not harsh enough on Germany. In 1925, he called for the assassination of a Jewish member of parliament, the Minister of the Interior, Abraham Schrameck, who had all of the of 7th of May, day of the May of Mayday and Joan Arc of a parade. Now, this is important. Joan of Arc was very much the symbol of the right, as opposed to Marianne as the symbol of the left. He was actually sentenced to a fine and one year suspended sentence, because the government ordered the , remember, it’s a Jew, a Jewish Minister of the Interior, orders the disbandment of all these right wing leagues and he screams out against it. Nevertheless, he is elected a member of the Academy Francaise in 1938. He later on is going to become an approver of the reactionary regime in Vichy, but later opposed the collaborationist because he also loathe the German. He was tried after the war, but released in 1952. Can we go onto the next slide please? Let’s have a look at Action francaise. There you see the emblem. Now, as I said, Maurras is its principle ideologist. So what is it? It’s completely anti-democratic. It’s monarchist. It’s counter-revolutionary. And it wanted a coup d'etat It was Catholic French nationalism against the separation of church and state. Maurras was actually an agnostic, but nevertheless, he wanted the restoration of Catholicism as against what he saw, the corrupt decadent Jewish third republic. The third republic that so many people revelled in, it’s beauty, it’s art, it’s music.

I mean, I know Patrick’s been lecturing on the impressionist, but I’m sure he’s told you just how taboo they were to so many people. The action review had a huge number of readers. It had a circulation of 130,000. It makes Maurras a very significant figure in French politics. Now, back to the Camelots du Roi and the Croix-de-Feu. Can we go on please? Okay, can you go back? Sorry, I thought I had another slide. Could you go back a minute? Okay. He’d recruits the Camelots du Roi to sell the paper. They become the paramilitary wing of the movement. They’re very important amongst right-wing French students. They support the Catholic hierarchy, and many members are devout Catholics. However, in 1926, plus the 11th condemns it and placed several of Maurras’ articles on the index. Because remember, he’s agnostic. However, and they said that, and the Pope actually said, “I will deny the sacrament to people who are a member of the movement.” And that did lead to some leaving. But however, in 1939, Pious the 12th ended the condemnation because of its strong stand against communism. However, it was still popular in the interwar years. Out of it was created a sprinter group called , which was totally, it was totally fascistic. And later on, it’s going to spearhead a terrible crisis in 1934.

Anyway, going on, Croix-de-Feu. Here we see Francois Coty. The Croix-de-Feu was created out of these other organisations and the movement was subsidised by Francois Coty and hosted in Le Figaro’s building. A lot of important French entrepreneurs were very much in favour of the right, and it benefited, the Croix-de-Feu benefited from the church’s prescription of Action francaise. And in fact, the young Francois Miteral joined the organisation, and he had a new approach to European settlers in Algeria. I’m talking about the white settlers of course, it’s very authoritarian, it’s imperialistic, it doesn’t want republicanism. It’s very antisemitic. It’s very xenophobic. And he talked about the young French in Algeria. They are a new race, youthful, virile, brutal and metropolitan as against the degenerate, effeminate and weak. And we’re prepared to use force against the Muslims and the Jews in Algeria, huge propaganda campaign. The organisation was very, very popular in Algeria. And it was taken over later on in 1930. They organised popular demonstrations over something called the Stavisky affair, a Jewish embezzler, of course, a Jew in trouble, and they made that the focus of their holiday, their horrors. Now, by 1937, the league actually had over 700,000 members. And can we go on please? Here you see Henri Dorgeres. Now, he was also an interesting man. He came from a peasant fam, a peasant farming background. And he created the Green shirts. These are peasants in the countryside who are right wing Catholic and want to destroy what they see is the liberal effete republic.

It became so divided that by 1936, in the elections of 1936, 5.5 million communists, I beg your pardon. 5.5 million to the left, one and a half million communists, 4.5 million to the right. And it’s at that stage that a coalition is going to be led by a Jew called Leon Blum, who is going to get the country back to work, but more about that in a minute. Now, to go back to politics again. Can we go on? Here you have Colonel de la Rocque who is the force behind those, the Camelots du Roi. He is a French colonel. He’s a total authoritarian. He’s going to throw in his lot with Vichy France. Can we go on please? Here you see the Croix-de-Feu. They are a very sinister, paramilitary organisation, remember, with a huge, huge membership. These are the leagues on the right, but the rights on the left, the communist was seen by the right as just as much as a threat, particularly because France had a Jewish prime minister. Can we go on please? Here you see a march. Here you see Maurras marching along with Action francaise and the Croix-de-Feu. You see, Croix-de-Feu. I beg your pardon. Marching through the streets of Paris. Can we go on please? That was the wonderful Jean Jaures who I’m going to talk about later on. He was the one man, I’m going to give you a conundrum, many think he was the one man who if he hadn’t been assassinated, he could have stopped World War I. And it was because of him that inter power came the extraordinary Leon Blum. More about him at another time. Can we go on please to Leon Blum. Here you see the man, and I’m going to spend a bit of time on him because he’s a real hero and he’s absolutely fascinating. Or is he a real hero? That’s for you to decide. His dates are 1872 to 1950. Because the picture’s a bit distorted, you can’t get a picture of that really kind face. But anyway, he came from-

• Trudy, I think it’s just on your iPad, the for others the picture is full.

• So as usual, it’s my lack of knowledge of technology. Thank you, Oliver. Thank you, Oliver. God, I am a stupid woman. Anyway, he came from a prosperous, assimilated family. His Father Abraham Blum came from Alsace. He went to the Ecole Superieure in Paris, then the university lawyer, literary critic, studied law. He becomes a brilliant lawyer. He’s superb. He is a superb advocate, a brilliant. He was very, very, a very big reader, brilliant man. It was the Dreyfus affair that brought him into contact in Jean Jaures and began contributing to the socialist daily humanity. Turns him into a socialist. He joined the French section of the Workers International and became its main theoretician and a great campaigner for Dreyfus. And after Jaures’ assassination, he becomes more active in the socialist party leadership. And in August, 1914, he is the assistant to the Socialist Minister of Public Works. And later he’s the chair of the party’s executive committee and elected to the National Assembly as a member for Paris. So you see, this is the clever Jew who come, I’m talking now as how he would’ve been seen by those on the right. He comes from a German family to Paris. Where does his loyalty really lie? Now, he believed there was no such thing as a good dictatorship. He opposed partisan and he did oppose participation in the Comintern. And I’m going to talk about that in a minute. Can we go onto the next slide and then go back, please. Now here you see the Communist International. Now this is very important. Who’s fit? I’m going to mention the people that you can see there. See it from the point of view of the right. There you can just about see Lev Davidovich Bronstein known as Trotsky, next to him, Rakovsky, next to him is Zinoviev, then Balabanoff, and Kibaltchitch. Now problem, they’re all Jews.

They don’t see themselves as Jews, but they are of Jewish birth and certainly their enemies see them as Jews. These are the people, of course. it’s the Jewish Comintern who are destroying Jewish life because they believe in international revolution. Now, the radicals within the left though succeeded in taking humanity with them and they joined the French Communist Party. So what happened at the Communist International, I think it’s important that you understand this, it’s known as the third international. And this is they advocate worldwide communism. And this is the statement put out by the Comintern. “Struggle by all available means, including armed force for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition to the complete abolition of the state. So they had seven congresses in Moscow between 1919 and 1935. And it was founded in Moscow in 19. And at the beginning, tributes are paid to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Now, this is important. There were 52 delegates from 32 parties, and the following parties are present. Now, you listen to this very carefully because it gives you a notion of just how powerful the right throughout Europe and America believed that communism was and more and more it’s seen as a Jewish disease.

The following communist parties of Russia, Germany, German Austria, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Estonia, Armenia, Swedish Social Democratic Party, Balkan Revolutionary People’s party, Zimmerwald Left Wing of France, Czech, Bulgarian, Yugoslav, British French and Swiss Communist groups. Now, Socialist Propaganda League and the Socialist Labour Party of America, the Socialist Workers Party of China, the Korean Workers Association, the Turkestan, Turkish, Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Persian sections of the Central Bureau of Eastern People, general staff of World Revolution. So I think it gives you a notion of why communism was seen as such a terrible threat by the right. So going back to Leon Blum, he was against being part of the Communist International, but he is a socialist and he is going to lead the socialist. Now Jaures is dead. He is the brilliant advocate, the lawyer in the General Assembly. He is going to lead the socialist parties in the 20s and 30s. He was also editor of the party’s newspaper, Le Populaire, and he believed. Now, this is something that is quite interesting. Think of it in his time, not our time. He believed in France’s mission to civilise. He said this, now this is problematic, "Right and duty of superior races to attract those who have not yet arrived at the same degree of culture and to call them to the progress. Progress realised thanks to the efforts of science and industry.

We have too much love of our country to disavow the expansion of its thoughts through French civilization. Okay. So he’s just as the Allianz back in 1860 wanted to civilise the Jewish world through French culture, he believes passionately in French culture. So he’s elected as a deputy for Narbonne. He’s reelected in 32 and 36. When France was in terrible recession, wages have fallen and workers were demanding reforms. And he has a victory in 1936. He has a solid majority. He has more seats than anyone else. And what he manages to form an effective coalition. And he becomes the French Jewish Prime Minister. You see, this is important, a Jew as prime minister of France. And now what he does is, there was a general strike. There are 2 million workers that it’s not much found in London at the moment or in England at the moment, but there were 2 million workers involved. They’d seize the factories and what he manages to negotiate, and it’s called the Matignon agreement named from the hotel. And it’s the Magna Carta of French labour, workers have the right to strike. He initiated collective bargaining. The legalisation of 12 days, paid annual leave, 40-hour working week, raised wages, 15% for the lowest paid, and employers would recognise chop stewards, no retaliation against the strikers. Now, this and the government must institute these reforms as quickly as possible. And as a result of that, he managed to stop the strikes. And in two years, the national average wage was up by 48%. But think of the crisis we’re in, inflation rose by 46%.

And of course, industry had trouble adjusting to a 40-hour week. There’s total economic confusion. He tries, and then Blum speeds up a programme to speed up arms production. Think about Europe at the time. He’s having to deal with fascist Spain. He’s having to deal with the rise of Hitler. And it cost some of the abandonment of the social reform. And don’t forget it was Blum that dissolved the far right fascist leagues. In turn, the popular front is being fought by the right wing movements, and more and more they’re using anti-Semitic slurs. Think about a Jewish prime minister. Think about the right wing. The slogan, "Blum is worse than Hitler,” because the French were also anti-German, so on one level, the rights are influenced by anti-Semitic propaganda, but still they’re anti-German. The Spanish Civil War divided France. Blum was neutral. He didn’t want to assist even though they were his ideological allies. He was frightened of splitting the domestic alliance. And also, he was worried about the costs. It leads to his resignation in 1937. I should mention that shortly before becoming Prime Minister, he was dragged from his car and almost beaten to death by the Camelots du Roi. And of course, that is when he dissolves all these right-wing leagues.

Now, he’s denounced by Xavier Vallat, I’ll be talking a lot about him next week, who of course was a sympathiser of Action francaise. He was briefly prime minister again in March, April, 1938, long enough at this stage to ship heavy artillery to Spain. He was unable to establish a stable ministry and his government fell. He always denounced appeasement with Germany. Now, what happened to him is he didn’t flee when the Germans invaded. He escaped to the south of France. The French ordered his arrest, of course, right wing government. And he was imprisoned in the Pyrenees. The 80, there were eight amongst the Vichy 80, who refused to grant four powers to Marshal Petain. He’s held there until 1942. He was put on trial for weakening French defences by having arms shipped to Spain. However, he was a brilliant advocate and he used the courtroom to make brilliant speeches. He indicted the French military and the pro German politicians like Pierre Laval. Much more about that next time. The trial was such an embarrassment, it was caught off by the Germans, and that’s when the Germans transferred him to their custody. He’s imprisoned in Buchenwald, but in the section reserved for high ranking prisoners. His future wife came to the camp and was allowed to live with him there voluntarily. They were actually married in Buchenwald. And when the allies approached, he was transferred to Dachau with other notable prisoners, later to Tyrol.

And in the last weeks of the war, the Nazis ordered his execution, but the local authorities didn’t obey. He was rescued by the Allies in May, 1945. In prison, he wrote a brilliant work called “On a human scale,” if you can get hold of it. He returned briefly to politics and was PM again, briefly in 1948. He was an associate of Weitzman. When the Jews were pushing for partition, he agreed to help them. He later served as Ambassador to America, and he was head of the French mission to UNESCO. His brother Rene, who was the founder of the Ballet Opera in Monte Carlo and was a brilliant choreographer. He had a tragic end. He was arrested in Paris. He goes to draw sea. He’s deported to Auschwitz, where according to the Vibar Vexler report, you know, those two Slovakian Jews who escaped. He was terribly tortured and executed. Now, I’m going to finish this session, although I have mistimed with the story of Edmond Fleg. And next week I’m going to be pulling it all together by looking at Vichy and the war years. The other issue that I want to discuss with you are the great heroes. There are great heroes of the French and of the Jews. And also, and I’m going to have to address this terribly difficult issue. Of course, Vichy was a completely, as it was, the Vichy government was extraordinarily anti-Semitic. It was reactionary. But having said that, although the numbers are reporting, 77,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but many of them were deported by French policemen. And there were many Frenchmen in Vichy up to their next knit. Nevertheless, 4/5 of French jury survived. So one of the issues I’ve got to address is the story of France.

And I think we know far more now. Don’t forget that the end of the war, de Gaulle wanted to see France as the country of the resistance. In fact, there was pretty little resistance until after operation Barbarossa when the Nazis invaded Russia, because then Stalin activated the communists. The first resistors were communists, and interesting, there’s a group of revisionist Zionists, including, by the way, the daughter of Scriabin, the great composer who converted to Judaism, but more about that next week. But I want to finish on one of my heroes, Edmond Fleg. Can we see his face please? Thank you. He’s born Edmond Flegenheimer in Geneva to an Alsatian family. He believed passionately, like so many of them, he believed in the values of the French Revolution. He believed that the principles of Judaism. He was a very thoughtful writer, equated with French ideas of tolerance, equality, freedom. He had both religious and secular education. He did have problems though with rabbis. He moved away from his Judaism. He studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure, qualified as a German teacher, close friend of Lucien Moreau, who was later on one of the leaders of Action francaise. So fascinating how friendships can be divided. They both agreed that French and Jewish nationalism travelled on parallel lines. He begins to reject assimilation. World War I, he joined the French Foreign Legion to fight for his adopted country, won the Croix-de-Feu. Later in 1937, he is made an officer of the Legion of Honour, very, very successful playwrights. His work was influenced by the Dreyfus affair. He participated in the third Zionist Congress and heard the reports of the pogroms. He begins to move in another direction.

This is what he said. “Initially, the Dreyfus affair passed unnoticed by me, but later it pushed me into the reality on the Jewish problem. It became very difficult to forget completely, you were a Jew.” He became a French citizen in 1920. Tragically, both of his sons were killed in World War I, and I’m coming onto that in a minute. Some of his famous works, the Libretto, for Bloch’s Macbeth, for Enesco’s Oedipus. He wrote many plays. He translated Gerter’s “Fast” into French and he translated Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into beautiful French. He moves more and more back to his Jewish roots. He became president of the Jewish Scout Movement. He worked with Jules Isaac in Christian Jewish relations after the war. Now he, I’m going to, because I’m running out of time, I’m going to read to you some of his writings. Let’s read. He was an active member by the way of, he survived because he went to the Italian section. “It is to you I want to answer my little unborn grandson,” but he never had one. “When will you be old enough to listen to me? When will you feel yourself a Jew? I now understand that the Zionist programme in no way implies the return of all Jews to Palestine, a thing numerically impractical. The Jewish fatherland is for Jews who feel they have no other. My heart and mind have always gone out into France. The Dreyfus drama was agony for me. But what is Zionism? 3 million Jews will speak Hebrew and live on in Hebrew soil. But the 12 million Jews will remain scattered throughout the world, for them and for me, who tragic questions remains; what is Judaism, what ought a Jew to be? How to be a Jew and why to be a Jew?” Can we go on please?

Now, this of course is written after the war. “I’m a Jew because born of Israel, having lost her, I have felt a living me again, more living than myself. I’m a Jew, because the faith of Israel demands of me no abdication of the mind. I am a Jew, because the faith of Israel requires of me all the devotion of my heart. I’m a Jew, because in every place where suffering weeps, the Jew weeps. I’m a Jew, because at every time when despair cries out, the Jew hopes. I’m a Jew, because the world of Israel is the oldest and the newest. I’m a Jew, because the promise of Israel is the universal promise. I’m a Jew because for Israel, the world is not yet complete. Men are completing it.” So the man who lost his grandchildren in the First World War. If you can read Edmond Fleg, I managed to get hold of a copy of his writings on Amazon. He really is so beautiful. He was saved in the war. In the Italian section, he was protected. So, but tragic. Can you be a Jew? Can you be a Frenchman? Where does Zionism fit into it all? A very, very profound thinker. Okay, can we stop there and let’s see if we’ve got any questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Thank you for helping, Oliver.

Yes. Rita says, “Heartbreaking, powerful photograph the child.” Yes.

Am I going too fast, David? I over-prepared today. Sorry, I will try.

Oh, this is from Betty Lowenstein, in Leon’s amazing Museum of Resistance. The whole story of Jamela is displayed and explained a tremendous data. Yes, he was a huge hero.

Faye says, “It’s the size of my screen.” Yes, of course, it is Faye. I haven’t got my eight year old grandson here to work it with me. Thank you. I’m being told I went too fast today. Okay, I won’t again.

It’s interesting that Durkheim was appointed to a senior position at the Sorbonne, the height of the Drapers Fair. Yes, this is the point, Michael. There is the liberal France too. Jews are going to the great literary salons. Yes, reproofs, there is a problem, but on the other hand, the optimism, it will get better.

Q: Why do you think some of those brilliant minds with yeshiva background became secular citizens of their country and others became Zionists and go to Palestine?

A: That is one of the great questions of Jewish identity in the 20th and 21st centuries, isn’t it? Let me say to you, and this is important. The majority of Jews before the Shoah were not Zionists. The majority of the religious, only the , for the secular, and also those who had taken on board the notion that you are a Jew of religion living in the country, in a citizen of the country in which you are born. There was still belief in Europe and in America that all would be well. It’s only those doubly alienated types in the West, like Max Nordal, like Theodore Herzl, other lecturer on the other week, and of course Eastern European Jews. Eastern European Jews, never forget that 40% of them, and I’m sure that includes many, many of your families, those of you who are Jewish got out. Well, the majority go to America, the second largest number to England. But between 1881 and 1914, 65,000 of them make the ideological step to go to Palestine because they believed, to quote the words of Leon Pinsker, who had dreamt of Jewish acculturation in Russia. His dream is smashed by the pogroms. And this is what he said. “Judeophobia is a psychic aberration. It is a 2000 year old disease. It is incurable.”

You also have to think about what are the components of Zionism? How much of it is an authentic Jewish nationalism? How much is it the messianic dream? Look, think Pesa, what are we going to say next year in Jerusalem? Every one of you who’s Jewish, I’m going to stick my neck out because I still think, I always think that whether you are religious or not, most Jews I know always have a seder. We say next year in Jerusalem, don’t we? And it’s also a response to modern antisemitism. So brilliant minds or many Jewish minds, they have to ask this question, what does it mean to be a Jew? And I think so many people are asking this question at the moment, aren’t they, particularly in the kind of problems that we’re having at the moment. And you see what’s interesting, what is fascinating at the moment, of course, is that the phenomenon of antisemitism is now, and a couple of my students have written to me about this. A lot of it is coming through the prism of the Jewish state and the overweening taking on the Palestinian course. Now, let me be careful. That is not a political statement, so please don’t write to me and give me your views on Palestine. That’s another issue altogether. But what I’m saying is that the anti-Semitism now has a element that is about Israel. And ironically, much of the antisemitism in the Arab world came out of Russia. I have talked about this years ago on lockdown. And if once the website is up, I think it’s an important presentation that we look at. If not, I will redo it.

Q: Joan, you talk about these Jews as outsiders. To what extent do these important Jews understand that they were outsiders?

A: I dare say that in the us especially in the large cities. The Jews remain complacent in spite of the increasing anti-Semitism. So very, very important point. In France, we know what’s going to happen. I don’t know how to answer that question. Look, there’s no doubt. In fact, I’m going to read you something, I’m going to be reading it actually at the beginning of my presentation next week, but I think it’s very pertinent.

This is from Barron de Rothschild, who’s president of the Consistory. You see what happens is the Eastern European Jews form their own societies. He says this, “The immigrants who arrive amongst us with their memories and habits of Poland, Romania, and elsewhere, retard the assimilation process and help create xenophobic feelings amongst Frenchmen.” You see, it’s the foreigners. We are proving how French we are. Now, of course, you can live quite happily in American society, in French society, in British society. You know what I believe? When society is economically, socially, and politically easy, the level of prejudice against all groups will diminish. I really believe that. One of the problems we’re facing at the moment with Jew hatred, and I’m calling it that rather than antisemitism, it’s coming through the prism of Israel. And the other issue that I find very, very painful, many of the victim groups now see us as major perpetrators. And that I personally find very, very painful because as I’m sure many of you know that on the barricades, the Jews were always there with them. Now, is it complacency? There’s that quote of Isaiah Berlin and on the subject of antisemitism, before the war, we were sleepwalkers, now we’re insomniacs. Look, I know that we’re very involved with shiner light. We each have to make our own minds up. Do I believe that my life is under threat in England? No, I do not. Do I believe that it’s uncomfortable? I believe it’s uncomfortable for so many people at the moment because we are living through very, very dark times. In England, people are having to choose between heat and food. Now, does that lead to an upswing of prejudice against various groups? Yes, of course it does. How does antisemitism fit into it?

Q: This is from Shelly. Didn’t Algerian Jews and other North African Jews support the French colonials because it brought them more opportunities for education and job?

A: Yes, but the problem was that in, and in fact we have a lecture tonight by Lynn Julius on Algeria and she’s by far the the the expert. And of course through Crimea, they received French citizenship, which meant an awful lot to them. The Muslims didn’t. And yes, of course there was better education, but turn of century, many of the colonials became very, very anti-Jewish Action francaise, yes.

I apologise, Suzanne. I have a absolute block about language and accent. My friend, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who is a stickler for language, she also is always kidding me. And I do practise, but then I get excited by lecturing and I forget.

Q: Would you say Blum became a Zionist after World War II?

A: No, but he did help with the establishment of the state.

Q: Did I see the film, “An Irrepressible Woman,” Leon Blum in Custody?

A: No, I didn’t. I presume that’s about his wife.

So Serena is telling us his book, “Why I’m a Jew?” was an important classic. In the opinion of my late mother, a Hebrew teacher in South Africa, Alma Lemus. How sad, yeah. How sad that Fleg’s two sons died in the war. His book is addressed to them and not to us. I very much agree with you. Oh, I’m so glad because it’s such a wonderful book, Serena. It kind of lifts me.

Susan is saying I like the new screen layout very much. Now that’s Susan. It’s because of my grandson, but I’ve got to do something with my own screen. It’s lovely to hear from you. Thank you. Oh, that’s interesting.

Q: Have I read anything of a prime minister of France named Pierre? He was a relative of my grandfather.

A: I know of him. How fascinating. Wow. Don’t we just love lockdown?

This is for Jaqueline. I wonder where my town or grandparents would fit into French Jewish Society in Paris. They came to Paris in 1924 from Aleppo via Istanbul. That is a very, very interesting question. I’m going to suggest it very much depends their level of education and also their wealth. Never forget the commando family. I mean some of the Sufadin who went to live in France had became incredibly wealthy and slipped into the French Jewish upper middle class.

Yes, this is true, Francois. One of the important outcomes of the Matignon Accords were the 40-hour work week. Yes, I hope I made that strong enough. The problem today was I had too much information, a very bad mistake, but I really wanted to not dwell too much on the horror. There’s so much you can read on all of this. I’m just trying to give you a flavour. This was a machine gun lecture, but I picked up much. Promise you, Stuart, I’m going to slow down.

This is from Sandy. Amazing that so many yeshiva raised Jews could ride so high in secular area giving the real lack of real education. Aha. It’s an interesting point you made. They left yeshiva quite young. Mumba one. It is an extraordinarily brilliant method of teaching. Just as with the Jesuits is a brilliant method of teaching. Most of my really, really, in fact, the smartest, two smartest people I ever knew had yeshiva education. Then they went to secular universities, but the one of them in particular always said he never came across the same kind of brain outside of yeshiva.

Q: Honey says, who is the Jew?

A: There is not one answer.

Stuart, we were only told days ago, at the time of Draper’s, there were 10,000 Jews in France. You were saying 70,000 died in the shore. Stuart, no, you were misinformed. There were a hundred thousand Jews at around 1900. On the eve of the second World War, there were about 350,000. There was not just the influx from Eastern Europe. There was an influx, remember, after 1871 from Alsace. Then between 1881 and 1914 from Eastern Europe and then a further 40,000 came in from Holland, Belgium, and also fascism in Germany. Think of characters like Billy Wilder who became a film man in Paris before he went on to America. He’d started out in Vienna. So it was actually seven 77,000 were murdered. Honey says, who is a Jew? Can some of these slides be emailed out? Oliver and Lauren, can this happen, Lauren?

• [Oliver] To email out the slides? Yeah, I think we can email them out.

• All right, lovely.

Here in America, Anna’s telling us TV ads shine the light standing up against anti-Semitism, other fortune hatred. First time I’ve seen TV ads such as this one. Again, the author of “Why I’m a Jew,” Edmond Fleg.

Yes, Cody did own the cosmetic family. Yes, he was the cosmetic man. Yes, he owned the company. Edmond Fleg, yes. Thank you. Rita.

Oh, this is Vivian all lovely. She said she doesn’t mind my French accent. Thank you, Vivian. I did go too fast today, I know that. And I know my French accent is appalling and I’m going to tell you why. I’m going to share it with you. My partner for many years had lived in France. He had a perfect accent. When I travel to France, I usually go with Patrick who of course has perfect French. So I hardly ever open my mouth and when I do it’s schoolgirl French, but I’m very good at reading menus. I can read French, I just stumble over it. In fact, my grandson thinks I’m dyspraxic, but that’s for you to think about. Thank you, Carol.

This is from Monty. Antisemitism is a problem for antisemites. They need therapy. Yes, Monty. The problem is it spills over onto us. Yes, I’ve heard many times that Christian anti Judaism is a problem for Christians, but they’re the majority, we’re the minority.

Thank you, Francis. Why I’m a Jew is in the reform. We read it every Pesach.

Oh, that’s lovely, Beverly.

Somebody likes the JRK. I like that you speak quickly. Very good narration.

Chanel, not a very nice lady. Yes, I know Sarah. She was a real anti-Semite. Yeah. What makes the achiever education so exceptional? Okay. To start with, at its best, it’s an older boy teaching a younger boy under a master. They concentrate on texts and they go into huge depth. One of my closest friends who was in yeshiva, one of the first things they made them do when they were five was learn 50 words backwards. Okay. It’s memory technique too. They’re given the tools. Many of them I know who broke away. They left it having left that world, but brought with them their memory techniques and it’s also Hegelian, the premise, the thesis, the anti-thesis, the synthesis.

This is from Jack. This is interesting. As a partial product, I would observe it’s excellent for a certain kind of thinking, but not for all aspects. That’s fascinating because two of my colleagues were yeshiva educated and what they had the ability to do was to kind of teach in a circle and it was brilliant if they managed to bring it all together. I’d love to know, Jack, what was the problem you did have.

Rene said she concentrated better because I was quick.

Cody built a copy of Versailles, the Noir, now a hotel. Beautiful place. Yes.

Q: Yes, sue would like if we could email out the Edmond Fleg Is that possible?

A: Is it possible to email out the Fleg slides without too much trouble, Oliver and Lauren?

Anyway, I think that’s the questions. I wish you all a very happy evening. I wish you all goodnight and I promise, this is for me, not for you, that I’m going to try very hard to pronounce French better. You wait till we get to Germany. That’s even worse.

Anyway, God bless everyone.