Emigration of Cultural Elites from Vichy France

This thesis analyses the emigration of cultural elites during the Vichy regime in France, hence in the years 1940-1944, and evaluates its success. It explains growing threat of the Nazis to the elites and particularity of the political situation in France that inhibited emigration during World War II. In this regard, the regime accepted measures among those the anti-foreigner measures and the internment of foreigners will be highlighted as the most important. This thesis is based on the list of personalities, compiled by the Emergency Rescue Committee, which thus provides a definition of cultural elite subsequently studied throughout the thesis. The author deals with the situation in the internment camps and explores the possible ways of release. In addition, the author depicts a community of artists and intellectuals in Marseille that was the only port from which it was possible to emigrate. Therefore, the important aim of this thesis is to define three escape routes from France used during the war, no matter whether they were counted as legal or illegal method of emigration