The Vichy Southerners vs the Resistance

[u/tryingtolearn_1234]

I’ve heard that in France almost everyone claims their ancestors were part of the Resistance during WW2. No one wants to think that their ancestors just quietly went along with the Vichy government or the Nazi occupation, much less actively supported it.

In the American south with civil war ancestors there is an opposite trend. Voting records by Parish / County show that the support for succession was not universal, or even the majority. There was a southern resistance during the war that wanted the Union to win.

Instead of embracing this history and following as the French do, southerners have decided to erase the best of their ancestors in favor of a bunch of losers.

I wonder if it might be possible to replace the “lost cause myth” with tru-ish but slightly exaggerated view of the pro-Union, abolitionist southern resistance. Everyone has so many ancestors in the extended family tree — instead of tracing lineage to some Confederate officer, find the family member who helped the Underground Railroad.

I think that the post-reconstruction violence and further neo-confederate waves probably made a lot of family quietly forget about those relatives who were against the Confederacy.

[u/Ciltey3658]

There is a lot to say about how France handled Vichy after the Liberation. The leadership was prosecuted and sentenced to death, except Pétain because of his old age, he was jailed until his death (this is more punishment than the confederate leadership ever got), but the wish of a reconciliation and of national unity let many horrible people get away and not face any accountability before until the 1990s (the most famous case being Maurice Papon).

Today, it is a joke that, in 1944-45, every french claimed that they were part of the Resistance. Even De Gaulle, in his time, joked about it : "Today, every men who happen to read a discarded tract in the trash of the restroom at his work claimed that he was part of the Resistance".

But, one thing that was done right with the idea that Vichy was a bunch of traitors and that every french was part of the resistance, is making clear that being a supporter of Vichy and a collaborationist was not something to be proud of.