Vichy in the mirror of conscience of the French nation

During the Second World War France was divided into occupied and unoccupied zone. The unoccupied zone was ruled by autonomous regime with official seat in the town of Vichy. Representatives of the Vichist regime collaborated with the Nazis and carried out anti-Jewish policy. After the war General de Gaulle, in order to establish unity, declared the Vichist regime invalid. After the French society was cleared of the war collaborators the Vichy episode was erased from the history of France At the beginning of the seventies in France began to appear tendencies to search the real course of the war occupation period. Shooting the film Le Chagrin et la Pitié or editing the French translation of Rober Paxton's book La France de Vichy may serve as examples. Since the early nineties French intellectuals tried to persuade political representatives to recognize officially the responsibility of France for Vichy crimes. This act was done by President Jacques Chirac in 1995. Simultaneously with discussions on the Vichist past a struggle for fair punishment of war collaborators for crimes against humanity was going on in the French society. Paul Touvier, former militiamen, was sentenced in 1994 and Maurice Papon, former official of the Vichist regime, in 1998