'Forgetting and Remembering the Second World War in the Haute-Savoie 1944-2019'

Abstract

This microhistory examines commemoration of wartime conflict in the French department of the Haute-Savoie between 1870 and 2019. The thesis first considers how the Franco-Prussian War, and the First World War are commemorated. It also examines interwar commemoration before focussing on commemoration under Vichy. The thesis then uses three case studies, the annual commemoration of resisters on the Glières Plateau (1944-2019), the memorialization of deported Jews from Annecy (1993-2019) and the ceremony held in Grand-Bornand to remember 76 executed anti-resistance militia (1945-2019), to investigate how local social and political division regarding memory of the Second World War have influenced commemorative practice and education in the department. The thesis questions whether it is possible to unite these three memories into an overarching single narrative and analyses who has ownership of this memory and how it is remembered at a local and national level. A close examination of the influence wielded by associations, social networks, and regional governmental representatives, exposes that it is these groups and personalities, and not the state, who drive commemoration at the local level. The thesis argues that local memory is often at odds with a state-imposed national memory. Veterans’ associations dominate local resistance commemorations, and memory of Annecy’s deported Jews only entered the public domain in the 1990s, once former resisters were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Despite efforts by the French government to prevent commemoration of the Vichy militia in Grand-Bornand, the families, and members of the far-right, continue to mark the occasion. These commemorations remain isolated. Because former resisters and collaborators coexist in small and separate communities, the local population has largely remained reticent about the war years. Enmity still endures between these groups and there is no suggestion that an overarching narrative incorporating resisters, collaborators and the Jewish experience will materialize.