ABSTRACT
It should come as no surprise to discover that the wartime period in France-dramatic, traumatic and painful-has had a profound effect on France’s national psyche in the postLiberation period. We should not suppose that the legacy has been simple and straightforward. Rather, we should regard the legacy as a complex and multidimensional issue. It is a subject that continues to fascinate historians; for example, Gildea entitles Chapter 3 of his history of post-war France, ‘Echoes of the Occupation’.2
