The Hard Truths of History

These two plaques, and others like them around the city, speak to a dark chapter in the history of France. The first is on the side of an elementary school in Montmartre and commemorates the Jewish students from that school who were sent to Nazi death camps in Eastern Europe. The second, located at the Orsay (now a museum, then a train station), remembers those who made it back. The plaque notes that the Orsay was the major site for the repatriation of people from the Nazi camps.

Anyone who studies French history knows about the troubling history of the war years, although it's something with which the French themselves have struggled for a long time. Note that the date of the plaque on the school says that it was only installed in 2003. It took American scholars to help tell the story of occupied and Vichy France because French historians were reluctant to delve into that episode on their own. What the scholars have found is that the French sent their Jews to the east even before the Nazis asked them to. They hoped, mistakenly, that they could befriend the Nazis and make the occupation less onerous. In the end, it was a devil's bargain.

Every nation has its demons -- France, the US, everyone. History is often not a pretty sight (take it from a professional historian). But maybe plaques like these begin a process of learning for everyone. I don't believe that history has strict lessons to teach us, but we can reflect on what has happened in the hopes of being better and wiser people as we confront the future.