ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the reality of the figures and the nature of the grievances; more importantly with the subjective perception of the purges by their victims; and with the memory of the purges as a form of national catharsis. The purged person may be the victim of his function the victim of his position as an executant of someone else's order, the victim of malevolent denunciation by rivals or political opponents, and the victim of the 'excesses' of the Liberation. The logical consequence of the large diversity of acts of a radically different nature was the increasing number of rumours and anecdotes about the excesses of the purges, and therefore the increasing number of 'victims' at all levels. The purges have become a key element in the 'hero/victim' system of representation that opposes in memory the good and the bad resisters, the heroes and the torturers, the real collabos and the victims of the 'wild purges'.
