Cinematic Portraits of Evil: Christian de Chalonge’s Docteur Peti ...

Coming to terms with the events of the German Occupation has been a difficult process for the French nation as a whole. This difficulty is largely due to the trauma of four years of Nazi occupation. France's military and political collapse in 1940, the emergence of the collaborationist Vichy regime, its shameful complicity in Nazi repression, the deportation of 77,000 Jews resident in France and a virtual civil war—‘une guerre franco-française’, which became particularly violent by the summer of 1944—were all contributory factors resulting in the collective deficiency which the historian Henry Rousso describes as ‘le syndrome De Vichy’. As he explains:

The ‘Syndrome De Vichy’ is thus a term which describes France's difficulty in embracing the truth surrounding the Occupation and the conflicts that were created, exacerbated or allowed to continue between 1940 and 1944. Rousso's argument is that, for a large section of the French population, such conflicts remain unfinished business, rendering them vulnerable and unreconciled to their own history. Unlike the Champs d'honneur of the First World War and the immediate process of national grieving which took place, the Second World War was much more complex. There were far fewer losses, at an estimated 600,000 fatalities. However, the precise nature of these deaths was not clear. Around 200,000 died during military action (about 90,000 in 1939–40 alone). The Vichy regime itself was responsible for the death of 135,000 people, including the deportation of 77,000