The role of antisemitism in Nazi ideology is well documented, and its influence in Vichy France scarcely less so, even if historians remain undecided as to the exact apportionment of blame. Grey areas may remain as to direct responsibility for the Statuts juifs promulgated by Vichy, and statistics concerning the deportation of French nationals and non-French Jews may continue to be debated, but evidence of an antisemitic policy in Vichy France cannot be denied. Just as the underlying tenets of the Révolution nationale were familiar to the French nation before Pétain brought them to particular preeminence, so antisemitism was a trait which already existed in the national character prior to the Second World War. This existing current of antisemitism among adults is important in explaining the choice of the Jews as a target for agitation propaganda in Vichy France, and also has consequences for the formal considerations associated with the choice of literary medium through which that message was to be transmitted to the younger generation.
As a result of the peculiar circumstances in which France found herself after the Armistice, the role of designated enemy, a fundamental prerequisite for national unity in the eyes of the propagandist, was apparently vacant. If the Germans could not form the basis of the kind of agitation propaganda featuring the Boche that characterised the First World War, other candidates were not lacking; indeed, the very profusion of possible targets necessitated their amalgamation into one composite enemy. In this way, the energies of propagandist and propagandee alike could be channelled into one major effort, avoiding diffusion and dilution, while further fuel was added to the conspiracy theory so necessary to create the conditioned reflex that throws a nation's people into each other's arms, and into the thrall of the régime that promises to protect against the perceived threat. All of the chosen subjects of Vichy paranoia, English, Freemasons, Jews and Bolsheviks, were traditional enemies of the Nation - only the Americans were regarded with a certain degree of ambivalence prior to their alliance with England in the War, not least because of their historic opposition to the British in 1776.
As a corollary to his belief that it is effectively impossible to persuade a group to act in a manner, or to believe a proposition, that is diametrically opposed to its normal behaviour patterns/beliefs, Ellul maintains that agitation propaganda will only work if the ground has already been carefully prepared through a long process of social conditioning. [1] The history of antisemitism in France, therefore, designated the Jew as an ideal target for a campaign that sought to demonise a distinct section of the community and to lay at its door direct responsibility for the crushing defeat suffered by France in 1940. Traditionally associated with the Jew was the Freemason, 'la fille du judaïsme' [the daughter of Judaism] [2] and this coupling was stressed in much of the non-fiction propaganda concerning children in the Second World War, which sought to portray innocent youth in the clutches of an education system dominated by the Hebrew nation and the Masonic Lodge (cf La Fausse éducation nationale. L'Emprise judéo-maçonnique sur l'école française, by Jean Bertrand [Henry Babize] and Claude Wacogne, CAD, n.d.
The organisation that published or coordinated much of the antisemitic and antimasonic propaganda in France, the Centre d'Action et de Documentation anti-maçonnique (CAD), [3] and its co-founder and director, Henri Coston, believed that children were the targets of Jewish/Masonic influence not just in the schoolroom, but also in their homes, through the literature they chose to read in their spare time, most notably comic books. This was the inspiration behind a booklet entitled Les Corrupteurs de la jeunesse. La main-mise Judéo-maçonnique sur la presse enfantine, written by Coston himself. [4] This text reiterated the threat represented by schools, enlarged the scope to cover a number of youth movements, but concentrated above all on the pernicious effects of comic books such as the 'Masonic' Les Petits bonshommes. In a further demonstration of the propagandist's economy and art, Coston also attacked Copain-Cop and Mon Camarade, two comics supposedly composed by scions of 'le Jérusalem moscovite', the editor being not only a Freemason, but also a Communist! Some spin-offs of Mon Camarade were said by Coston to be translations of Soviet publications, and the Bolshevik connection is stressed on the cover of the booklet, which gives prominence to a grasping taloned hand, the traditional image used by Vichy and Nazi propagandists alike to evoke the peril from the East.
With their entry into the war in December 1941, the ambivalent status of the Americans was instantly resolved, and the propagandists were quick to include them in the opprobrium heaped on the other enemies of the régime. With Judaism and Masonry still as fundamental ingredients, the Americans were added to the melting pot of accusation and conspiracy bubbling around the corrupters of French youth. Coston accused 'le trust judéo-yankee' of being behind such publications as the Journal de Mickey, brainchild of the Mason Disney, and the publisher Winckler, a Jew and a Freemason.[5]
Coston accused the Jews and Freemasons, not to mention the Communists, of setting out to win new adepts, of demoralising French youth, and of slowly fermenting a process of disaffection for the homeland which had culminated in the young adults of the 40s being unwilling to participate in the 'tâches grandioses que lui offre la Révolution nationale '[the great tasks offered to them by the National Revolution]. Accusations were not always so clearly stated. 'Corruption' is a charge frequently levelled against these forces, an emphasis on the lubricious nature of the Jew suggesting that moral, if not physical, corruption was particularly feared. In Les Corrupteurs de la jeunesse, apart from labelling the Jewish publisher Offenstadt 'un abject pornographe' [an abject pornographer], [6] Coston accuses the comics he attacks of provoking hatred in the heart of their readers ('[de] susciter la haine au coeur de leurs jeunes lecteurs'), [7] but what the concrete result of this hatred might be is not specified. The question of what these forces were supposed to be doing to the children is all the more interesting when we consider that one of the means used to counteract this propaganda was for Vichy, in turn, to direct agitation propaganda at the children themselves, not just to the adult readers of texts such as those produced by the CAD. What did the Vichy propagandists seek to achieve in fostering antisemitism among its young audience?
This question is not fully answered by an analysis of the texts themselves, but such propaganda seems to have been primarily aimed at inducing the children to shun the Jewish population, and more generally to reinforce the sentiment of antisemitism abroad in the country, perhaps with the intention of causing the children to accept, even to applaud, the removal of a substantial proportion of the Jewish population from their immediate vicinity. While there is no suggestion of charging the infant readers of such texts with complicity in the fate that ultimately awaited Jewish deportees, and indeed the final destination of these victims was never openly avowed by the Vichy régime, the extreme violence latent in the two anti-semitic texts studied below, and in all the anti-enemy propaganda for children investigated, has disturbing reverberations for those familiar with the genocidal aspirations of the Nazi régime.
The reference to Nazi Germany raises the important question of the exact source of this agitation propaganda. If the Révolution nationale had similarities with Nazi ideology, not least in its insistence on the importance of clean-limbed youth to the future of the nation and a new Europe, the enemies chosen by the régime to unite the people were very much the enemies of the Third Reich. Unlike some of the improving works referred to in Section I that were produced by government organisations, the anti-enemy propaganda for children that has survived to this day is not explicitly linked to any particular Vichy ministry, but rather appears to be the work of a small number of publishers based in Paris. Their origin in the Occupied Zone is significant, tying in with the essentially Nazi nature not only of the message they were transmitting, but also with the choice of agitation propaganda as a medium. This is a medium, particularly where oratory is concerned, used far more readily by the extremist elements in French politics, such as Doriot or the Légion.
A prolific source of anti-enemy works for children was the publisher NEF, whose initials or whose logo of a fully-rigged galleon appears on two antisemitic works to have survived: Youpino, and Doulce France et Grojuif [Sweet France and Fatjew]. The former is undated and anonymous, while the latter is signed 'N', has illustrations by 'JB' and was published in 1942. According to Rossignol, [8] this publisher is not to be confused with the Nouvelles Editions Françaises, the new name given by Robert Denoël in November 1940 to a company originally founded in 1937, which he used to bring out his collection 'Les Juifs en France'. Despite this similarity of interests, NEF is identified by Rossignol [9] as being the Nouvelles Etudes Françaises (7 rue Darboy, Paris) which published a number of works, usually undated, supporting the ideas of national socialism, especially antisemitism. Another Parisian publisher and printer, G. Mazeyrie, was responsible for a satirical adaptation of the traditional abécédaire form, the Abécédaire à l'usage des petits enfants qui apprennent à lire et des grandes personnes qui ne comprennent pas encore le français.... In the case of Mazeyrie, the company's connections with the Germans are clearly documented; [10] the company was effectively requisitioned by the Nazis in October 1940, and from that date was a prolific source of propaganda attacking Masons, Jews, Bolsheviks and the British, all of whom appear as targets in the abécédaire referred to above. The Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC) also gives the Germans as the inspiration behind the other major fairy tale adaptation to have survived from this period, L'Homme aux mains rouges [The Man with Red Hands]. This beautifully illustrated tale is anonymous and undated, with no mention of publisher or printer, but does bear censorship inscriptions linking it with the German Propaganda Abteilung, the branch of Goebbels' Berlin-based propaganda machine that was hard at work in occupied Paris.
The guiding force behind the publication of these texts may have been German, but the literary traditions that they exploit are at the heart of French culture. Looking specifically at the use of the folk genre as a medium, one might argue that fairy tales or Märchen in one form or another are fundamental to German literature also, not least through the efforts of the brothers Grimm. Delarue has demonstrated, however, that there are marked differences between the French tradition and other European folk tales, including those from Germany, which might be summarised as consisting of a greater degree of simplicity, fewer supernatural devices and a more human impulsion behind plot development in the French tradition. [11] Amidst the profusion of versions of the Le Petit chaperon rouge [Little Red Riding Hood] to have survived to the Second World War, [12] it is Perrault's version, that with which the overwhelming majority of French children would have been familiar, that has been chosen as the model (with only one slight but significant divergence), for the plot structure of Doulce France et Grojuif. Barbe-Bleue [Bluebeard], the model for L'Homme aux mains rouges, does not exist in the German tradition, the Grimm brothers having excluded it from their collection when they realised that the version they had intended to include had come to them direct from Perrault. The basic theme does exist in Germany in the form of the tale entitled Fitchers Vogel [Fitcher's Bird] published by the Grimm brothers, but the replacement of the human protagonist by a monstrous bird in that version, in addition to a number of other less drastic changes, distances it both from Perrault and L'Homme aux mains rouges. [13]
The popularity and pervasiveness of the fairy tale in children's literature in France is one of the most compelling reasons for its choice as a propaganda medium, a reason compounded by a number of formal characteristics of the genre which render it particularly suitable to manipulation by the propagandist. Turning first to the enduring popularity of the genre, the favoured position of the fairy tale in the canon of children's literature received an unexpected boost between the two wars, when it provided publishers with the means of filling shortfalls in their output occasioned by the dearth of other suitable new material. Other popular authors such as the Comtesse de Ségur and Jules Verne also benefited from this situation, and the period saw many new editions and collections of these established favourites. Fairy tales were not just popular in their printed form, however. In a continuation of the oral tradition from which they originally sprang, public story-telling sessions were organised, as witnessed by the Petit journal illustré of 15 June 1924, which gave details of two girls who recounted fairy tales to groups of children gathered at their local bandstand, [14] and the activities of the librarians of the children's library the Heure Joyeuse in Paris. [15]
Tales of magic, both traditional and new, continued to be published during the Second World War, [16] but if such tales were very popular among children and among publishers, for whom they represented an assured source of income, they led to a certain degree of learned debate among some adults. The marvellous content of such tales came under severe scrutiny between the wars from educationalists such as Maria Montessori (who denounced them in a speech in London in 1921) and the American Sara Cone Bryant (who included them in her programme). Arnold Van Gennep defended their pedagogic value in the Revue bleue in 1921, [17] and Paul Hazard also defended them in 1927. [18] The controversy surrounding the genre focused above all on the fantastic element present in all such tales, and whether this was detrimental to a child's ability to distinguish between reality and fiction. Such a discussion clearly has interesting implications for the subsequent use of the genre as a medium for propaganda, and for the didactic efficacy of such texts in general.
According to Hazard, authors first tried to make fairy tales instructional in the 1920s ('les fées deviendront institutrices' [fairies were to become school-mistresses]), [19] but most experts are agreed in tracing a fundamental socialising imperative in the genre right back to Perrault. This imperative is made explicit in the morals appended to each tale in the original edition of Perrault's prose contes, although many subsequent editions omit them. [20] Even without the benefit of the moral, however, the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, to cite the example which interests us particularly here, is clearly cautionary, and this makes it an excellent vehicle for a 'moral' of a different nature. From a rather different perspective, one opponent of the Jewish publishing fraternity saw the fairy tale as a potential forerunner of the kind of moral poisoning that his enemies were apparently always on the look-out to promote; in 1923 the Abbé Bethléem railed against the Offenstadt press - 'Cette officine pornographique d'origine allemande' [this den of pornography of German origin], accusing it of winning the fidelity of the nation's youth through the purveyance of fairy tales, only to corrupt its audience, once captured, with all kinds of brutal and depraving publications. [21]
Whatever the aims of such literature, Hazard is convinced that children are never duped by overtly didactic approaches, and that they are skilled in skipping over such passages, or in rejecting works in which the moral intention dominates. [22] Perhaps this is why the editors of some non-scholarly editions have chosen to omit the morals from the end of Perrault's prose tales. Henri Coston was of the same mind with regards to propaganda for children, suggesting that comic books should first of all amuse their young readers, the didactic purpose remaining skilfully disguised. [23] Whether or not the children themselves were duped, writers of propaganda prior to the Second World War had already seen the fairy tale as a genre worthy of their attentions. Perrault's ogre from Le Petit Poucet [Tom Thumb] had appeared in many political caricatures since Napoleonic times, usually as the embodiment of brutish authority, [24] and had gained a new lease of literary life in the First World War in 'L'Ogre et le Petit-Poucet' by Emile Moselly [Emile Chenin] in Contes de guerre pour Jean-Pierre, (Berger-Levrault, 1918). In Moselly's tale, as with all of the propaganda produced in France in this period, the fairy tale style was used against the Germans (the Ogre), rather than in their favour.
Thanks to its very obvious nature as a cautionary tale, Le Petit chaperon rouge had also enjoyed a career in propaganda prior to the Second World War, in addition to the many unpoliticised versions that had flourished throughout Europe. In his investigation of The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, Zipes charts many of these incarnations (though not Doulce France et Grojuif), picking up Hans-Wolf Jäger's suggestion that the story was given an anti-Jacobin context by both Tieck and Grimm. [25] Politics also have a role in the play Red Riding Hood by Thomason (1920) which cast Germany as the wolf and ended with the characters singing the Marseillaise. Finally, Zipes translates in full a version of the tale by the German writer Ulrich Link, which appeared in 1937, and which represents a biting satire of the German state and of Nazi propaganda.
To exploit a literary genre with which the reader is well-versed, enables a propagandist to lull his reader into accepting a new message under cover of a familiar wrapping. It may also inspire him to shock his reader into recognition of his message through a well-timed departure from the traditional script. Over and above the obvious advantages of adapting a genre with which readers are already familiar, however, the folk tale is composed of a number of structural and narrative elements that render it particularly suitable for exploitation by the propagandist. While these elements are best discussed in the context of specific works, a number of generalisations can be made. Simplicity is the fundamental key to the appeal of the genre, at structural, grammatical and lexical levels. Sub-plots are rarely encountered, sequences of events are, as Propp [26] has demonstrated, limited, predictable, and often used in repeat or symmetrical arrangements (cf the arrival of the Wolf and Red Riding Hood at Grandma's cottage). Resulting in part from the oral origins of such tales, the linguistic simplicity is further enhanced by a number of repeated verbal formulae that give the text rhythm and dramatic effect, and help to anchor the tale in the reader's, or listener's, memory while imparting a certain sense of involvement in the narrative process, and perhaps, by extension, in the story itself. Again Little Red Riding Hood provides a good illustration of this technique, in the question and answer session at the end of the tale, where not only are the queries and responses formulaic, but where the final response of the wolf is often addressed directly to the audience by an adult reader. [27] Characterisation is marked by a strong element of stereotype and exaggeration (the richest, the poorest, the most beautiful...), which, added to the stock functions of certain characters (the stepmother, the witch, the wolf), aids in the rapid identification of 'goodies' and 'baddies'.
If the genre is notable for its simplicity on a structural/linguistic level, there are many more complicated processes occurring under the surface. For the original author and for the propagandist alike, the restricted length of the fairy tale is conducive to sustained allegory; moral or social in the case of the former, political in the case of the latter. The fantastic devices natural to the genre and the strong element of exaggeration are also invaluable in this domain as they allow a more serious message to be portrayed in a highly entertaining and striking manner. In addition to the cautionary or moral aspect built into Perrault's tales, however, there are other levels of 'hidden' or privileged reading, to be absorbed at a subconscious level or enjoyed consciously by those with greater perception, as Perrault himself pointed out in the dedicatory letter that accompanied the first edition of the tales. Rouger gives examples of slightly risqué asides incorporated into the seemingly innocent texts of La Belle au bois dormant [Sleeping Beauty] and Le Petit Poucet, [28] and the fact that these are considered 'above the heads' or unsuitable for children by some editors is confirmed by the exclusion of the example from Le Petit Poucet in at least one non-scholarly edition of the tale. [29] The timelessness of the tales, introduced by those immortal words 'Il était une fois' or 'Once upon a time' also enables the adept author to introduce a set of essentially anachronistic references to the present day into his narrative, thus enhancing the relevance of the moral/political message to the contemporary reader. Perrault himself indulged in a number of such references in his tales, incorporating details of the personality of Louis XIV, a 17th-century royal wedding, and of the palace at Versailles. [30]
For the writer of agitation propaganda, the violence inherent in many of the tales is particularly valuable, for, coupled with the elements of exaggeration and fantasy, it enables wicked characters to behave in a manner which is truly evil (one only needs to re-read Le Petit Poucet to be convinced of this exceptionally violent streak in Perrault's tales). The internal realism of the fairy tale [31] renders this trait particularly dangerous when it is a question of manipulating the young reader. The conventions of the genre render such evil actions believable within the context of the tale, they even make them inescapable as a natural extension of the character's psychological and physical makeup. Give the wicked character an identity from the real world, that of a Jew for example, and a child may well believe the Jew capable of such evil deeds in real life.
Even more disturbing, perhaps, when the fairy tale is used for propaganda purposes, is the fact that the comparative absence of a great deal of overt magic in the French tradition highlights the fact that actions and effects are created by human impulsion. The ultimate message in Perrault is that 'la source de la magie est dans l'âme humaine' [the source of the magic is in the human soul] [32] that is, that despite all their fantasy trappings and their literary presentation, these are true stories in terms of psychological realism. This is particularly well demonstrated in the tale Riquet à la houppe, less familiar in English collections, in which an ugly prince and a stupid princess become attractive and intelligent in the eyes of the other, ostensibly through the intervention of a magic spell, but in fact as a result of their love for each other. This psychological dimension, while adding value to the fairy tale when it exists in its pure form, becomes a dangerous weapon in the hands of the propagandist.
This tale is acknowledged as holding a unique position in Perrault's works as the most overtly cautionary of all the prose contes. In its oral origins it was probably a genuine warning against straying into lonely areas where wolves continued to roam freely, as they did in much of Europe in the Middle Ages, and was thus a fictionalised, but not fantastic, portrayal of reality. Even the anthropomorphic qualities of the wolf were not originally based in the realms of fantasy, as people at this time genuinely believed in the existence of werewolves, the number of werewolf trials in the 15th-17th centuries testifying to the seriousness of this belief. Historians of the genre are united in agreeing that it was Perrault himself who first adapted the tale to endow it with a symbolic meaning that comprised the socialising aim of warning young maidens of the dangers of straying from the path of duty, and of fraternising with strangers, particularly male 'wolves'. The sexual element of the moral is made particularly clear in the moral affixed to the end of the tale.
Successive generations of writers have added many refinements to the actual tale, and projected a number of surprising interpretations onto even the earliest versions. The best known modification of the tale is that of the Grimm brothers (Rotkäppchen, 1812), which gave a dramatically new twist to the ending of the tale by introducing a valorous woodcutter to cut open the wolf's stomach, extract Red Riding Hood and Grandma, and to aid them in weighing down the wolf's stomach with stones, leading to his sudden death. According to the theoretical leanings of subsequent critics, this ending either conforms to reality by representing the most likely means of our heroine being saved when in the depths of the forest (assuming one accepts the feasibility of escaping lupine ingestion unharmed), or is equally realistic as a demonstration of the phallocratic dominance of a male-orientated society over the frivolous and ineffectual weaker sex. [33] You pays your money... [34] What the Grimms' ending does appear to do, is to dilute the danger by which Red Riding Hood, and by extension the reader, is threatened, by suggesting that some outside agency will ultimately come to the rescue - a very profound and significant modification of Perrault's original message.
The title of the tale 'Doulce France et Grojuif' is sufficient to suggest the nature of the pastiche that is to follow. This version of the well-known story presents Doulce France [Sweet France] in the heroine's role, Grojuif [Fatjew] as the Wolf, with Mother and Grandma playing themselves, although the latter is given the added burden of appearing under the highly symbolic name of 'Vérité' or 'Truth'. Close analysis demonstrates that this version is an exceptionally faithful reproduction of the original Perrault version, with only a few marked divergences, most notably in the ending of the tale. Here a switch is made from Perrault to Grimm, with Doulce France being rescued from Grojuif's clutches not by a woodcutter, but by 'un des fils de la nouvelle France' (see Appendix 1) a Légionnaire according to the uniform he wears in the illustration. The text is illustrated by nine scenes from the tale, which again serve to establish a close connection between this story and the traditional tale. All the settings and characters would be suitable illustrations for the Perrault version, with the exception of the final picture, featuring France's saviour, and for the character of Grojuif himself. When Grojuif first appears, his silhouette is essentially lupine in nature, but this resolves itself into a much more hybrid monster in successive scenes. Interestingly, the illustrator has avoided too 'human' an appearance for the anti-hero, unlike many illustrators of the classic tale, and has gone rather for a horrible fantasy figure with a disproportionately large hooked nose.
Turning first to the similarities between the two texts, these can perhaps best be appreciated by comparing the two stories, reproduced in parallel in Appendix 1. A comparative study reveals first of all that the texts are almost identical in length approximately 650 words (excluding the moral in verse appended to the Perrault version). The propaganda text follows every plot development of the original, but is expressed in a simpler and slightly more concise form (see below), thus allowing the inclusion of France's rescue at the end of the story without exceeding the number of words in the original. The lexical similarity between the two texts is marked. As a rough guide, approximately 40 per cent of the original words used by Perrault are reproduced in an identical form and in a substantially identical context in the propaganda version, and while the later version has modernised Perrault's grammar and vocabulary to a certain extent in a quest for greater clarity, it has retained the notable archaisms already present in the original, thus establishing a clear link with the pre-text and retaining much of the flavour of it. The archaic verb 'seyer' is retained early in the propaganda text to confirm the literary bona fides of this version already established with the classic opening 'Il était une fois'. Both of these devices also serve, as they do in Perrault, to perpetuate the 'timeless' convention of the genre. The second notable archaism, the use of the verb 'choir' in the instructions that the Grandmother and subsequently the Wolf/Grojuif issue ('tire la chevillette, la bobinette cherra') was perhaps originally included to suggest the age and peasant background of the grandmother. It remains one of the most memorable phrases in the text, having, as Soriano suggests, some of the qualities of a popular tongue-twister. [35] Again its retention by the propagandist demonstrates a desire to highlight the links between the two texts and to profit from the most popular features of the original. Even more striking than the similarities in structure and language is the way in which the antisemitic message of the propaganda text is so well adapted to the story-line of the original. Because of the simplicity of the tale and the clearly defined but two-dimensional characters, one set of players can easily be replaced by another; the story, even the vocabulary, remain the same, but the ultimate message is far more sinister.
The propagandist has not been able to resist some additional touches of his own, however, to make his message even clearer, and to introduce a comic effect in the characterisation of Grojuif while reinforcing all the prejudices connected with the stereotypical portrait of the Jew. Thus, in a departure from the original, Grojuif reverts to his own voice ('sa voix naturelle') for the question and answer session with Doulce France, enabling the author to make much of his Jewish accent. A supplementary question is added to the famous list of enquiries to highlight not only the supposedly typical Jewish nose, but also the cupiditous nature it is meant to denote ('Ma mère'grand, que vous avez un grand nez! - C'est bour mieux renifler les bedides affaires ma ville' [Grandma, what a big nose you have! - All de bedder to zniv out little business deals by dear]). The supposedly insinuating nature of the Jew is also introduced in the propaganda text when Grojuif first meets France ('[il] se fit gentil'), and the grasping hooked fingers which featured in so many posters of the period are not omitted; the 'fils de la nouvelle France' [the son of the new France] arrives just in time to deliver France from their grasp ('pour délivrer Doulce France des doigts crochus de Grojuif').
All these stereotypical attributes are notable additions to the text, but the most blatant antisemitic attack comes in a deformation of the existing text. In Perrault's version, the Wolf kills and eats Grandma because he hasn't eaten for more than three days. In the antisemitic propaganda, he does so to satisfy his bloodthirsty tendencies, and it is noted that he habitually kills and eats the flesh for pleasure (as indicated by the imperfect tense of 'tuait' and 'dévorait'). The impact of this accusation is made all the more sinister by the causal relationship expressed in each text which relates to the whole question of the inherent realism and 'human' impulsion in Perrault's fairy tales. If we accept that it is realistic, even normal, that a wolf should kill through intense hunger, we are more likely to accept, even subconsciously, the logic given to explain Grojuif's actions.
It is all the more surprising in view of this vicious attack, that the author of the propaganda version has not taken the opportunity to exploit one feature of the original tale that was particularly suited to antisemitic propaganda of this period. A marked element in such literature in both France and Germany is the concentration on the lecherous nature of the Jew, and his compelling desire to corrupt the virtuous and pure French/German maidens. In Germany this theme featured in a picture book of 1936 published by Streicher (Nuremberg) entitled Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid, Und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid! (Never trust a fox on a green heath, And never trust a Jew on his oath!). [36] In France this theme was taken up by Henri Coston in his attack on Offenstadt (see above). If the Germans concentrated above all on the threat that the Jews represented to the purity of the race, the French highlighted the sexual and moral aspects of the threat, and thus it is all the more interesting that nothing was made of the 'nakedness' of Perrault's wolf, and his invitation to Red Riding Hood to join him in bed. In Perrault, the young girl not only accepts the invitation, but undresses without prompting, and the author himself makes the rather risqué comment that she is surprised at the appearance of the wolf 'en son déshabillé'. The sexual element is evident in Perrault even without this aside or the reinforcement provided by the moral at the end of the tale, and one can only speculate as to why the propagandist chose to ignore it. Ignore it he certainly does, for Doulce France is only invited to approach the bed ('viens près de mon lit'), not to enter it, and France is surprised only by his 'allure étrange' [strange appearance], as Grojuif is in fact not naked having dressed himself in the clothes of the Grandma. This last factor is part of the apparent explanation as to why the propagandist chose to abandon an ideal opportunity more or less handed to him on a plate and links up with the final major departure from the original text.
In giving Grandma the highly symbolic name of 'Vérité' [Truth], the author of the propaganda text has added an allegorical dimension to the tale that is entirely absent from the original. This addition, introduced in the second sentence of the story appears to suggest an underlying discussion of fundamental moral abstracts, but in reality only seems to have been included to enable a further dig at the Jewish stereotype, whose inherent hypocrisy is demonstrated by his 'putting on the clothes of Truth' once he has killed and eaten Grandma. In deviating from the original model, the shortcomings of the propaganda author become apparent. Having given Grandma an apparently symbolic function, an acceptable move given the symbolic importance of Doulce France (not just an individual French girl, but the whole nation at risk from Judaïsm), the allegory is not pursued. The grandmother neither says nor does anything that particularly links her to the virtue she is deemed to represent. In line with the original version, we are told that the grandmother adores her young grand-daughter, whereas it would perhaps have been more significant in symbolic terms if Doulce France were to adore la Vérité. There is no obvious significance to Truth giving France a red cap, especially as the cap is given no explicit symbolism, and while the fact that Truth is ailing could be a reference to contemporary events, the allusion is not pursued. No indication is given as to how the biscuits and butter the child brings her grandmother might help Truth's indisposition, as these objects are not endowed with any alternative qualities. While the ending of the tale is perfectly consistent with the political message of the propaganda story, it confirms the lack of cohesion at a more complex level of allegory. The woodcutter is 'un fils de la nouvelle France', but apparently no relation to 'la Doulce France', who is also distinct from the France whose skies are now filled with the 'warm rays of Truth'. As this last reference suggests, it is the sun which finally takes on the allegorical attributes of Truth, and Grandma, allegorical significance and all, appears to have been abandoned in the belly of Grojuif.
Setting aside this unsuccessful attempt to embellish the original story, and the other additions referred to above, the propaganda version of Le Petit chaperon rouge demonstrates very effectively the techniques of grammatical and narrative simplification that can be employed to make an uncomplicated text even clearer in order to ensure the successful transmission of a political message. The most consistent technique employed by the propagandist here is to split Perrault's sentences, already very straightforward grammatically-speaking, into their major components, creating new, shorter, unsubordinated sentences. [37] Thus the 35 sentences in Perrault's version become 51 in the later text, only five of these being accounted for by completely new material (the reference to Grojuif's nose, and the ending). Average sentence length falls in the later version from 19 words to 12, and although the shortest 'sentence' in both stories is the two-word 'Toc, toc', the longest in the propaganda text is 29 (Grojuif la voyant lui dit ...) compared with Perrault's 50 (Le Loup se mit à courir ...). The most common means of splitting a sentence is by replacing conjunctions such as 'et' and 'car' by a full stop and commencing a new sentence, or by taking out the relative pronoun 'qui' and beginning a new sentence with the relevant personal pronoun. Perrault's use of the semi-colon as a linking technique is also discontinued in the propaganda text, again being replaced by the start of a new sentence. To streamline the narrative, a number of phrases not essential to the plot are stripped from the original, resulting in a somewhat starker exposition of the events and detracting from the consummate elegance of the original. Thus Perrault's phrase 'Le petit chaperon rouge tira la chevillette, et la porte s'ouvrit' [Little Red Riding Hood pulled the latch, and the door opened] is replaced by the abrupt 'Doulce France entra' [Doulce France entered]. This represents an economy of effort on both the author's and reader/listener's part, but an impoverishment of a text that has so carefully set up a series of references to the 'chevillette' as part of a richly textured aural experience. [38]
Simplification is also evident in this propaganda version of the Bluebeard story, resulting in a reduction of the overall length of the later text to approximately two thirds that of the original. In this tale, there is far less direct use of the original language of the Perrault version, although there is sufficient to suggest that the author had access to the original at the time of writing his or her adaptation. Significantly the highest proportion of direct transcription appears on the first page of the propaganda version (approximately 37 per cent of the page) perhaps to attract the reader's attention by its similarity to Perrault and firmly to establish the connection between the two texts. [39] In the remaining 6 pages (as originally laid out in the published book), 1 has approximately 2 per cent of 'original Perrault' text, 2 have less than 1 per cent and the others have none. Sentences are much longer than those of Doulce France et Grojuif, the 1018 words being divided into only 25 sentences. With an average length of 41 words, the shortest sentence has 12 words (the concluding sentence), but the longest is a massive 97, exclamation marks, with which the text is liberally spattered, rarely signifying the end of a sentence.
Linguistically, this then is a much looser pastiche of Perrault than Doulce France et Grojuif, and as a result it loses some of the dramatic effect and lyrical appeal of the original. This is particularly noticeable with regard to the use of archaisms and repetition of verbal formulae, as discussed above. In the final scene of the tale, the author of L'Homme aux mains rouges has eliminated the twice-repeated reference to 'le soleil qui poudroie, et l'herbe qui verdoie' (not even replacing it with a more modern version) and greatly diminishes the dramatic suspense of the original tale, by reducing the number of times the heroine looks for salvation (from four times to only twice). The modern author also cuts the character of the sister who features in the original and with whom the heroine engages in a series of formulaic questions and answers while waiting to be saved.
In general terms, descriptive detail and literary embellishment in L'Homme aux mains rouges have been stripped down to the minimum necessary to retain a strong association with the original story, without necessarily reproducing all of the literary effects created in the original. What descriptive elements have been retained, are adapted to suit the new meaning of the tale and the characters who feature in it. Thus this story centres on the actions of a powerful ruler, the eponymous 'hero' of the tale, who wishes to marry the beautiful princess Europa. He leaves her in the Kremlin, in charge of his possessions, while he travels to Siberia in the far flung reaches of his domain, pausing only to warn her on pain of death against entering his castle in Katyn. True to the impulsions of her 17th century alter ego, the princess cannot resist the temptation to do that which has been forbidden, and on entering a locked room in the forbidden castle, discovers the bodies of the ruler's previous brides, Princess Poland, Grand Duchess Lithuania etc. As in Perrault, the key falls to the ground and is covered with a blood stain that cannot be removed, which alerts the ruler to her discovery on his return. The bloody-handed despot swears by the damned soul of Lenin to revenge himself of Europa, and she retreats to the highest tower of the castle to call her people to her aid. Despite the divergence from the Perrault version at this dramatic climax, the outcome in the propaganda text is ultimately the same, for the Princess is saved by the timely arrival of the noble Prince Germain, who destroys the despot and liberates the Princess. In recognition of this valorous deed she places herself under his protection 'thus assuring years of Peace and Prosperity for many long years for the entire world' (see Appendix 2 for a transcription of this tale in its entirety).
Even before the despot is revealed as Stalin by Prince Germain on the penultimate page of the text, many clues have been laid down as to his true identity. Elements from the original fairy tale are cleverly adapted to give the opportunity for descriptions of the abundant cereal harvest and rich mineral resources of the despot's dominions, and to provide the names of his previous mistresses, Francia and Espana, 'dames de la cour', a reference to the factions that 'flirted' with Stalin during the French Popular Front and the Spanish Civil war. John Bull is also named as an ally of L'Homme aux mains rouges. The reference to the bodies discovered in Katyn is not only the direct inspiration behind the text, but it also helps to date this publication, which was presumably written soon after the discovery of the murdered Polish officers in the Forest of Katyn in early 1943. Stalin himself had started to feature as a villain in French propaganda from December 1940 with the beginning of Hitler's drive towards the East entitled 'operation Barbarossa' - a name to conjure with in this context!
In addition to the transparent references to Stalinist Russia in the written text, the illustrations of this tale are loaded with symbolic allusions to the Red Peril, and also bring out the racial stereotypes associated with the Bolshevik, characteristics not explicitly referred to in the text itself. Stalin and his henchmen have the thick eyebrows, slanted eyes, and hooked nose typical of visual representation of the Soviets in this period, and Stalin is further typified by his characteristic thick drooping moustache. Europa and Germain, on the other hand, are clearly Aryan. Stalin is surrounded by many symbols of his nationality; a tame (Russian) bear dances at court in the first picture, in the second a bear skin covers the sledge in which Stalin and Europa ride. Red stars feature in profusion, as do the hammer and sickle which are cunningly inserted into every illustration, as part of a flag standard, as a candle stick, as wall paper, etc. The troops of the noble Prince Germain in keeping with the 'timeless' flavour of the fairy tale, are dressed in suits of armour, but the helmets they wear are identical to those worn by the German troops in the 1940s.
As in Doulce France et Grojuif, the propagandist author of L'Homme aux mains rouges has not included any reference to the morals, for there were two, appended to the 1697 Perrault version of Barbe-Bleue. One of the reasons for this could have been that they were simply not aware of their existence, many modern editors having chosen not to include any of the 'moralités' appended to the original tales in their editions. For those familiar with these morals, it is immediately clear, however, why their omission would perhaps have been a foregone conclusion in the propaganda version of the Bluebeard story. The first moral stresses the curiosity of the woman, and concentrates on the deceptions encountered as a result of attempting to satisfy this particular vice. While the propaganda text, interestingly, does comment on the weakness of Europa in wishing to satisfy her curiosity in Katyn, [40] too great a reflection on the participation of Europa in her brush with Stalinism might deflect attention from the true villain of the piece, l'Homme aux mains rouges, alias Joseph Stalin. The second moral essentially reduces the dramatic story to an allegory for domestic squabbles and the battle of the sexes - of no interest, and again a potential diversion, in the eyes of the propaganda writer.
The violent nature of these propaganda stories may shock, but the violence they contain is all to be found in their 17th century models. Even the cannibalistic instincts attributed to the Jew have their equivalent in the Ogres and Ogresses of Perrault's originals, in tales such as Tom Thumb and in the latter part of Sleeping Beauty (sometimes excluded from modern editions). What is particularly shocking, perhaps, is the fact that rather than embodying abstract human characteristics, such as greed, lust, envy etc., exaggerated for greater effect, these propaganda stories pin this antisocial behaviour on real sections of the community, and by identifying fictional characters with living individuals, transform their actions from the allegorical into the representational.
If the story lines, characterisation and narrative structures of the classic fairy tale are well-suited to aggressive agitation propaganda, however, this was not their only value to the propagandists of Vichy France. To convey the importance of Travail, Famille and Patrie to the younger members of society, and to encourage them to assist in the renaissance of their country, elements of the fairy tale genre were combined with other aspects of traditional children's literature, to create a softer image with which to woo the young reader.
1.
Ellul, J. Propaganda. The Formation of Men's Attitudes,
Vintage Books, 1973, p. 15 and passim.
2.
Coston, H. Les Corrupteurs de la Jeunesse. Main-mise
judéo-maçonnique sur la press enfantine, Bulletin
d'information, numéro spécial
anti-maçonnique, Paris [?1941/2], p. 12.
3.
Founded in 1941 by Henri Coston and Paul Lafitte, the Centre was
housed in the rue Puteaux in Paris, in the former premises of the
Grande Loge de France.
4.
The date of this publication is difficult to determine, the BDIC
catalogue suggests 1941/2, Agathon gives 1943.
5.
Coston, op. cit., pp. 23-24.
6.
Idem, p. 18
7.
Idem, p. 16.
8.
Rossignol, D., Histoire de la propagande en France de 1940
à 1944, PUF, 1991, p. 229.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Idem. p. 61
11.
Delarue, P., Le Conte populaire français, Paris, 1957,
vol 1, pp. 34-46.
12.
See the works of Zipes, Soriano, and Delarue listed in the
Bibliography.
13.
Delarue (op. cit., p. 182) points out that Aarne-Thompson gives
Fitchers Vogel a different classification number to
Barbe-Bleue.
14.
Renonciat, A., Livre mon ami: lectures enfantines 1914-54.
(Catalogue établi et rédigé par Annie
Renonciat), Mairie de Paris, 1991, p. 66.
15.
See Leriche, M., 'Les Contes dans l'éducation des enfants de 6
à 11 ans, ou l'Heure de Conte', in La Revue du livre et des
bibliothèques, no. 12, 1934, pp. 261-272
16.
Details of these can be found in the Bibliographie de la
France and in the catalogue of the Heure Joyeuse. Examples
are Huard, L.-L., Quatre contes de fées, Bordeaux,
1941; Platel, L., 'Le Sifflet magique' in Contes pour les
enfants, Paris, 1942; Gisiger, H., Tobio et ses aventures au
pays des fées, Neuchatel, 1941, and the sequel Tobio
détective au pays des fées, 1942. The character of
Barbe-Bleue was featured on the cover of the Téméraire
of June 1st 1943.
17.
Van Gennep, A., 'De la valeur pédagogique des contes des
fées' in Revue Bleue, Paris, 1921, no. 19, pp.
602-606.
18.
Hazard, P., 'Comment lisent les enfants' in Revue des deux
mondes no. 42, 1927, pp. 860-882.
19.
Hazard, P., op. cit., p. 861.
20.
The morals are referred to in the dedicatory letter to
Elisabeth-Charlotte d'Orléans (Mademoiselle) ; 'Ils
[les contes] renferment tous une Morale très
sensée, et qui se découvre plus ou moins, selon le
degré de pénétration de ceux qui les
lisent'. [They [the tales] all contain a very
sensible Moral, which is more or less apparent, according to the
degree of perception of those who read them]. This letter also
refers to 'la louable impatience d'instruire les enfants'
[the laudable eagerness to instruct children] (Perrault, C.,
(ed. M. Soriano) Contes, Garnier-Flammarion, 1991, pp.
245-246).
21.
'Elle s'empare des petits par l'attrait des images et des contes
de fées; une fois grandis, elle les tient par des
récits brutaux et dépravants, elle les mène
ensuite, soit par des voies indirectes, soit par des voies ouvertes,
à la polissionerie et au libertinage' [It captures the
young through the attraction of pictures and fairy tales; when they
have grown up, it holds them with violent and depraving stories, it
then leads them, either by indirect means, or overtly, to
licentiousness and debauchery] Abbé Bethléem,
Revue des lectures, 15 mars 1923, quoted by Renonciat, op.
cit., p. 28.
22.
'Pour sauter des paragraphes, des pages, des chapitres, quelle
précoce habileté! Un coup d'oeil, un coup de pouce et
cela suffit; ils ont senti venir le prêche et dextrement ils
l'ont passé. C'est l'histoire qu'ils veulent retrouver; et si
décidément on les abuse, tant pis pour le livre, il est
condamné' [What a precocious talent they have for
skipping paragraphs, pages, chapters! A quick glance, a flick of the
thumb and that's it; they sensed the sermon coming and skilfully
avoided it. It is the story that they want to pick up again; and if
one persists in taking advantage of them, too bad for the book, it is
condemned] (Paul Hazard, op. cit., p. 863.
23.
'Le but de ces journaux pour enfants est de distraire, de
satisfaire le goût et les aspirations des jeunes. Ce qu'il
faut, ce n'est pas ennuyer et lasser cette clientèle
enfantine, mais au contraire l'amuser tout en la guidant d'une main
sûre et ferme vers les idéaux qui font la force des
nations.' [ The object of these comics is to amuse, to
satisfy the tastes and the aspirations of the young. What is needed,
is not to bore or tire this juvenile audience, but on the contrary to
amuse them, whilst all the while guiding them with a sure and firm
hand towards the ideals that are the strength of a nation.]
Coston, H., op. cit., p. 27.
24.
For a detailed discussion of the popular engravings associated with
this tale, see Renonciat, A., Petit Poucet dans la jonchée
des feuilles, Paris, Le Vieux Papier, 1990.
25.
Zipes, J., The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding
Hood, Heinemann, London, 1983, pp. 17 and 18.
26.
Propp, V., Morphology of the Folktale, Indiana University,
1968.
27.
This was clearly the original intention of Perrault who worked from
oral accounts of the tale, and who noted at this juncture in the text
of 1695: 'On prononce ces mots d'une voix forte pour faire peur
à l'enfant comme si le loup l'allait manger'. [One
pronounces these words in a loud voice to frighten the child as if
the wolf were about to eat them.] (Soriano, M., Les Contes de
Perrault, culture savante et traditions populaires, Gallimard,
1977, p. 80.
28.
Perrault, C., (ed. G. Rouger), Contes de Perrault, Paris,
Garnier, 1967, p. xlvii.
29.
I have not investigated this omission in other editions, but it is
certainly absent from the Flammarion edition of Les Contes de
Perrault illustrated by Pierre Noury, published in the 1920s.
30.
Rouger, op. cit., pp. xlii and xliii.
31.
See Hazard, who discusses in some detail 'ce réel que
l'inexplicable interrompt sans l'abolir' [this reality that
the inexplicable interrupts without destroying] (Hazard, P. op.
cit., p. 869)
32.
Montégut, E., Des fées et de leur litterature en
France, quoted by Rouger, op. cit., p. xlv.
33.
Fromm even disagrees with this interpretation, qualifying the
huntsman as 'the conventional father figure without real weight' and
defining the tale as 'a story of triumph by man-hating woman' (Fromm,
E., op. cit., p. 241).
34.
One of the most detailed psychoanalyses of this tale is to be found
in Bettelheim, B., The Uses of Enchantment. The Meaning and
Importance of Fairy Tales, Penguin, 1976, pp. 166-183.
35.
Soriano, M. op. cit., pp. 153-154.
36.
Was ist der Jud ein armer Wicht!
Mag seine eignen Frauen nicht!
Er meint, er sei entsetzlich schlau,
Wenn er sich stiehlt 'ne deutsche Frau.
[...]
Der Vater zu der Tachter sagt:
''In mir ein schrecklich Sorgen nagt!
Wir sind doch reinen Bluts!
Du aber gehst aus Eigennutz
Um schone Kleider und um Geld
Zum Juden Sali Rosenfeld
Und meinst, du wirst gar seine frau
Das gaht nicht, wird nicht, h&oum;r' genau:
Ans Wagenjoch der guten Kuh
Spannt niemals man den Dackel zu!
Das ist ja die Unm&oum;glichkeit!
[...]
The Jew is a poor wretch!
His own women don't appeal to him!
He thinks he's terribly clever
When he steals a German woman.
[...]
The father says to the daughter:
'A dreadful worry plagues me!
We are all of pure blood!
You, however, out of self-interest,
For the sake of fine clothes and money
Are seeing the Jew Sali Rosenfeld
And even talk about becoming his wife!
It's not on, no way, listen well:
One would never hitch a dachshund
In a yoke intended for a fine cow!
It's just not possible!
(Bauer, E., Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid, Und keinem
Jud bei seinem Eid! Stürmer-Verlag, Nuremberg, 1936).
37.
Lüthi informs us that Wilhelm Grimm carried out a similar
process when he adapted popular folk tales for the Fairy Tales, being
particularly careful to eliminate subordinate clauses (Lüthi,
M., Once Upon a Time. On the Nature of Fairy Tales, Indiana
University Press, 1976, p. 37.
38.
Other stylistic comparisons can be made from a study of the parallel
texts in Appendix 1.
39.
It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that this version begins with
the less frequently used introduction 'Il y avait une
fois' (my emphasis), which is not used in Barbe-bleue,
which begins with the more familiar 'Il etait une fois'.
40.
'Le curiosité est un vilain défaut et malgr é
toutes ses qualités, la Princesse EUROPA é tait une
petite curieuse [...]' [Curiosity killed the cat, and
despite all her good qualities, EUROPA was an inquisitive little
thing] (op. cit., p. 6).