ABSTRACT
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to say that the expositions that I heard this morning gave me a good deal of pleasure, especially that of Alain Griotteray who opened the colloquium. I believe that one should retain one main thing from it: that the French people did not fall prostrate before the German occupation. It is true that today—and it really isn’t only recently—certain people portray the morale of the French as at its lowest in 1939. And from that one naturally draws the conclusion that France in 1940 accepted willingly the presence of the enemy. For this reason it is good to recall certain facts and that was done this morning. But I wish to emphasize several.
