The Legacy of Nazi Occupation: Patriotic Memory and National Recovery in Western Europe, 1945–1965 (Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare, Series Number 8)

This book offers a comparative analysis of how postwar society dealt with the disruptive legacy of Nazi occupation in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It examines the postwar trajectories of resistance fighters, labor conscripts employed in Nazi Germany and victims of Nazi persecution and genocide. Their experiences were often incompatible with the patriotic narratives, aimed at restoring national pride and with the international context, requiring reconciliation with West Germany. In the conflict between memories of the war and the contingencies of the postwar political agenda lies a key to understanding European history since 1945. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Series-title......Page 4 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Figures......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Abbreviations......Page 13 Introduction......Page 17 Part I Troublesome heroes: the post-war treatment of resistance veterans......Page 35 1 Appropriating victory and re-establishing the state......Page 37 2 Heroes of a nation: Belgium and France......Page 54 3 A nation of heroes: the Netherlands......Page 75 Part II Repatriating displaced populations from Germany......Page 95 4 Displaced populations......Page 97 5 The challenge to the post-war state: Belgium and the Netherlands......Page 107 6 Pétain's exiles and De Gaulle's deportees......Page 122 Part III The legacy of forced economic migration......Page 145 7 Labour and total war......Page 147 8 Moral panic: 'the soap, the suit and above all the Bible'......Page 160 9 Patriotic scrutiny......Page 173 10 'Deportation': the defence of the labour conscripts......Page 183 Part IV Martyrs and other victims of Nazi persecution......Page 213 11 Plural persecutions......Page 215 12 National martyrdom......Page 226 13 Patriotic memories and the genocide......Page 267 14 Remembering the war and legitimising the post-war international order......Page 278 Conclusion......Page 308 1. BELGIUM......Page 323 3. THE NETHERLANDS......Page 324 2. CONTEMPORARY JOURNALS AND NEWSPAPERS......Page 325 3. BOOKS AND ARTICLES......Page 326 Index......Page 339 This volume, in Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare series, examines how France, Belgium and the Netherlands emerged from the military collapse and humiliating Nazi occupation they suffered during the Second World War. Rather than traditional armed conflict, the human consequences of Nazi policies were resistance, genocide and labour migration to Germany. Pieter Lagrou offers a genuinely comparative approach to these issues, based on extensive archival research; he underlines the divergence between ambiguous experiences of occupation and the univocal post-war patriotic narratives which followed. His book reveals striking differences in political cultures as well as close convergence in the creation of a common Western European discourse, and uncovers disturbing aspects of the aftermath of the war, including post-war antisemitism and the marginalisation of resistance veterans. Brilliantly researched and fluently written, this book will be of central interest to all scholars and students of twentieth-century European history. "This volume examines how France, Belgium and the Netherlands emerged from the military collapse and humiliating Nazi occupation they suffered during the Second World War. Rather than traditional armed conflict, the human consequences of Nazi policies were resistance, genocide and labour migration to Germany. Pieter Lagrou offers a genuinely comparative approach to these issues, based on extensive archival research; he underlines the divergence between ambiguous experiences of occupation and the univocal post-war patriotic narratives which followed. His book reveals striking differences in political cultures as well as close convergence in the creation of a common Western European discourse, and uncovers disturbing aspects of the aftermath of the war, including post-war antisemitism and the marginalisation of resistance veterans. This book will be of central interest to all scholars and students of twentieth-century European history."--Jacket This book analyses how France, Belgium and the Netherlands emerged from the Second World War. Pieter Lagrou offers a genuinely comparative approach, based on extensive archival research. Brilliantly researched and fluently written, this book will be of central interest to all scholars and students of twentieth-century European history Were the political regimes that followed the downfall of fascism also the product of the struggle against fascism?