Contenu du sommaire

The failure of Henri Labroue's antisemitic course at the Sorbonne (1942-1944), Claude Singer. After several fruitless attempts, collaborator circles succeeded in December 1942 in obtaining the creation of a Chair of "History of Judaism" at the Sorbonne. Taught by Henri Labroue, an obscure antisemitic professor ; the course met the open hostility of both students and professors. The inaugural lecture was perturbed by a demonstration of resistant students.

The destruction of Caen in 1944, Danièle Voldman Using the example of the bombings which hit and practically destroyed Caen during the summer of 1944, the author studies the reasons for the strategie choices which could explain them. The problems of protection, evacuation and management of the civilian population gave rise to a new form of intervention, whether by Vichy, the Germans or the Allies.

Order and security. The two new police corps of the Third Republic, Jean-Marc Berlière. How was the modem French police created and what was the Third Republic's contribution to its birth ? The Third Republic stressed cautious reformism as the deep changes in criminality and in sensi- tivity to it demanded the ending of the anarchy of the repressive System, the weaknesses of the provincial police and the excessive use of the army to quell disturbances. After much hesitation, a specialized corps was set up for the maintenance of order as well as a mobile judicial police.

An example of legal pacifism. Théodore Ruyssen and the Peace Through Law movement, 1884-1950, Rémi Fabre. Supported by the values of 19th century legal ideology, the Peace Through Law movement was one of the major components of French pacifism in the early 20th century. A product of the Protestant and Republican bourgeoisie, it embodied a "juripacifism" which thought its highest degree of expression was Wilsonianism and the League of Nations, and had to face the ambiguous debates of the 1930s and the painful choices following the Munich conference. Its history makes it possible to qualify some rapid approximations and perhaps to frame better the question of the pacifists' position in a Europe torn by the tensions of mass societies.

Akihito in China. The limits of atonement diplomacy, Eric Seizelet. Returning to Emperor Akihito's visit to China in October 1992, the author de- scribes ail the factors which can explain why it took so long for Japan to start examining its conscience about its Second World War deeds, a process which it has not y et completed. These contradictions, which were symbolized by the very person of Hirohito, continue to affect his successor. They account for the still ambiguous character of the "regrets" expressed by Akihito to the Chinese people.