(3 of 6)
In addition economic collaboration was well under way. A barter system for foodstuffs and many other commodities was doing big business between France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg—and Hungary and Rumania were reported about to join up. With a lid artificially clamped on the prices of French securities, Germans were buying heavily into French banks and business houses. It was announced that French and German insurance companies would shortly fix a standard rate schedule among themselves.
"Racial" collaboration was in frightening motion. Three weeks ago Adolf Hitler made the Jews of Occupied France equal to the Jews of Germany—forbade them practically all business or professional activity, stipulated that if by reason of the new law they were obliged to leave any occupation, they were entitled to no compensation.
Twenty-seven Jewish banking and brokerage houses in Unoccupied France were forced to accept non-Jewish "provisional" managers, and the Vichy Propaganda and Information Secretariat declared: "Measures the French Government will take in drafting future statutes will be humane but firm. The intention is simply to put [Jews] in a position where they can no longer harm the country. They will be removed from every job where they have a hand on the lever of any French activity —banks, industry, commerce, press, radio, cinema, publishing and the theater, as well as public administration."
Recently, also, the French democratic tradition suffered perhaps its greatest purely symbolic defeat. Marshal Pétain kicked France's hallowed Bastille Day into discard, replaced it with a new national holiday for which he picked May Day. The former French labor festival also happens to be the Marshal's own Saint's Day.
The abandonment of French democracy has, of course, deep roots in the character of France's present head men. Eleven months of relentless German pressure might have forced some civilian leaders of conquered France to yield a great deal, without turning them into fascists. But few of France's professional soldiers have any deep appreciation of democracy. In retrospect it seemed last week that Vichy's action was a foregone conclusion, especially after the great recent Nazi victories.
Stubbornly patriotic as Marshal Pétain may be, his patriotism has never emphasized or even reflected the French egalitarian spirit. Even as an officer in World War I he was a professed Royalist, often expressing dislike for liberalism and democratic institutions. In 1934 when the Fascist Croix de Feu attempted a coup d'etat, its demand was for the Hero of Verdun as head of Government. Again, in 1937 when the Cagoulards (Hooded Ones) were caught in what seemed a foolish revolutionary plot, their aim was to make Pétain dictator.
During the Spanish Civil War the Marshal strongly favored the cause of his old war-college student and personal friend, Francisco Franco. During the Nazi Blitzkrieg on France, a Pétain Ministry was favored by the appeasement group in the French Cabinet. Recalled from his Ambassadorship in Madrid, the Marshal headed the Cabinet faction which opposed Winston Churchill's offer of a French-British union.