Re: [Marxism] Holocaust Reconciliation Echoes U.S. Civil War Reconciliation

[Paddy Apling <e.c.apling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:07 13/02/2005, Jim Farmalent wrote:

> Well, in the case of Mitterand and Petain, it should be noted
> that Mitterand came out of an extreme right-wing family background;
> that during WW II, the young Mitterand, then an avowed admirer
> of Petain, was a civil servant for the Vichy regime, where he
> befriended a number of high level officials of that regime,
> and that he continued to remain on good
> terms with many of them not only later in the war, when he had
> joined the Resistance, but even long after the war.  Indeed, he
> went out of his way to help shield former officials of the Vichy regime
> from prosecution (including the notorious prefect of the police in
> Paris, Rene Bousquet)  many years later, when he was president of
> France.

All this is so difficult to understand by Americans (and British !!) who
have never had to suffer occupation - where life has to go on - and money
has somehow to be either earned or contributed - so that whether
individuals are or were "resisters" or "collaborators" is almost a
"lottery" and difficult to disentangle, as it is connected not merely with
political outlook and ideology but also with family and community
responsibilities - and a whole lot more.....

Paddy



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