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Originally posted by lord of the mark
'Those sharp words don't bother Delisle. She enjoys driving her nationalist opponents crazy. In her new book, Delisle is challenging conventional Quebec wisdom that during the time of the Second World War, Quebec was an inward-looking place that didn't think much about the fascist regimes in Europe. That is a "big lie," Delisle says in her typically pointed way. In fact, she says, Quebec's priests, lawyers and academics were well aware of European-style fascism, and some of them liked it. Not surprisingly, most Quebec academics prefer to ignore that chapter of Quebec history, says John Hellman, a history professor at McGill, where Delisle did her postdoctoral research. Quebec academics don't want to dredge up memories of how the elite supported fascist regimes, he says. "It's terribly embarrassing."
Delisle can't wait to make them blush. She has spent the last few years coming archives in Canada, the united States and France, tracking down more than a dozen Nazi collaborators who came to Quebec after the war, as well as the prominent Quebecers who helped them. As we known now, many other nazi collaborators were also welcomed by sympathizers in many other parts of Canada, but so far, few historians have chased after them in the way Delisle is doing in her home province. She tells the story of Jacques de Bernonville, a senior police officer in Vichy France who hunted down resistance fighters during the war. Condemned to death in France, he came to Quebec under an assumed name in 1946. When immigration authorities discovered who he was in 1948 and ordered him out of the country, 143 Quebec notables signed a petition defending him. De Bernonville's supporters included the secretary general of the Université de Montréal and Camille Laurin, a student who would later (in 1976) become a senior Parti Québécois cabinet minister. Another collaborator, French Nazi propagandist Paul Reifenrath, came to Quebec under an assumed name and was sent by Union Nationale premier Maurice Duplessis to the Vatican in 1949 as his unofficial envoy.
Even the mayor of Montreal through the Thirties, Camillien Houde, supported fascist leaders like Italy's Mussolini. Henri Bourassa, the founder and former editor of Le Devoir, praised European fascist regimes as late as the summer of 1943. Polls showed the majority of Quebecers supported the Pétain regime in France, even in 1943, when it was increasingly clear that Pétain was collaborating with the Nazis. '
'Those sharp words don't bother Delisle. She enjoys driving her nationalist opponents crazy. In her new book, Delisle is challenging conventional Quebec wisdom that during the time of the Second World War, Quebec was an inward-looking place that didn't think much about the fascist regimes in Europe. That is a "big lie," Delisle says in her typically pointed way. In fact, she says, Quebec's priests, lawyers and academics were well aware of European-style fascism, and some of them liked it. Not surprisingly, most Quebec academics prefer to ignore that chapter of Quebec history, says John Hellman, a history professor at McGill, where Delisle did her postdoctoral research. Quebec academics don't want to dredge up memories of how the elite supported fascist regimes, he says. "It's terribly embarrassing."
Delisle can't wait to make them blush. She has spent the last few years coming archives in Canada, the united States and France, tracking down more than a dozen Nazi collaborators who came to Quebec after the war, as well as the prominent Quebecers who helped them. As we known now, many other nazi collaborators were also welcomed by sympathizers in many other parts of Canada, but so far, few historians have chased after them in the way Delisle is doing in her home province. She tells the story of Jacques de Bernonville, a senior police officer in Vichy France who hunted down resistance fighters during the war. Condemned to death in France, he came to Quebec under an assumed name in 1946. When immigration authorities discovered who he was in 1948 and ordered him out of the country, 143 Quebec notables signed a petition defending him. De Bernonville's supporters included the secretary general of the Université de Montréal and Camille Laurin, a student who would later (in 1976) become a senior Parti Québécois cabinet minister. Another collaborator, French Nazi propagandist Paul Reifenrath, came to Quebec under an assumed name and was sent by Union Nationale premier Maurice Duplessis to the Vatican in 1949 as his unofficial envoy.
Even the mayor of Montreal through the Thirties, Camillien Houde, supported fascist leaders like Italy's Mussolini. Henri Bourassa, the founder and former editor of Le Devoir, praised European fascist regimes as late as the summer of 1943. Polls showed the majority of Quebecers supported the Pétain regime in France, even in 1943, when it was increasingly clear that Pétain was collaborating with the Nazis. '
The most recent post I made on the subject was less than 3 months ago.
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