Author: Kalman, Samuel

Source: Historical Reflections, Volume 34, Number 2, Summer 2008 , pp. 46-65(20)

Abstract:

Refuting claims made by several historians that the Croix de Feu/Parti social français were non-exclusionary, this article demonstrates the prevalence of anti-Semitism and xenophobia throughout the league's metropolitan and Algerian sections. CDF/PSF leadership and rank-and-file alike prioritized the notion of the enemy, and their plans for les exclus augured similar developments under the Vichy regime. Although less rabidly xenophobic than his colleagues, whose opinions variously promoted denaturalization and outright elimination, group leader Colonel Françaois de la Rocque was nonetheless prone to racist and exclusionary doctrine, arguing that foreign Jews and immigrants were the enemies of la patrie, and should necessarily be expunged from the new nation. The article describes the wide range of xenophobia present in group actions and discourse, while positioning the CDF/PSF within the broader context of French and Algerian society.

Keywords: ALGERIA—ANTI-SEMITISM ALGERIA—HISTORY—TWENTIETH-CENTURY; CROIX DE FEU—HISTORY; FASCISM—FRANCE; FRANCE—ANTI-SEMITISM; FRANCE—ETHNIC RELATIONS; LA ROCQUE; FRANÇOIS DE; 1886-1946; PARTI SOCIAL FRANÇAIS—HISTORY

DOI: 10.3167/hrrh2008.340204

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