The Prisoner of War Question and the Beginnings of Collaboration
The Franco-German Agreement of 16 November 1940
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10072732 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Raffael Scheck (0000-0001-9510-5419, Colby College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 364-388 |
| Publication date | 2010-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022009409356911 |
| OpenAlex | W2056220698 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
This article discusses the connections between collaboration and the prisoner of war question in the early Vichy period by tracing the evolution of the Franco-German agreement of 16 November 1940 and its repercussions on French POWs. Based on the Scapini Papers and French and German archival materials, the article argues that the agreement happened in the context of a voluntary policy of collaboration initiated by the Vichy authorities, who hoped that collaboration would trigger German concessions on the POW question, but did not push collaboration to ease the fate of the POWs. Hitler likely offered the agreement as a concession that would allow Vichy to demonstrate to the French public an apparent success of collaboration, detracting from some hostile German measures that occurred at the same time. Vichy took the bait because it hoped to win over the French POWs in Germany to Pétainist ideology and because it was eager to bolster its own legitimacy. But humanitarian considerations also played a role in the French consent to this agreement, which to some extent can be seen as preventive collaboration. Plausibly, the agreement and the framework it established, despite undeniable dangers, represented a lesser evil for the French POWs
Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · German · Ideology · Legitimacy · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Prisoners of war · World War II · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · North African History and Literature
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,57 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2023 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |