Culture et idées

The fearless, peerless French lawyer who chronicled the Nazi Occupation

Maurice Garçon was a celebrated lawyer, essayist, novelist, gifted amateur artist and historian who was ultimately elected to the illustrious Académie Française. But Garçon also kept a diary during World War II, including France's Occupation by the Nazis. This recently-published journal reveals an apolitical, solitary, contradictory man who loathed Hitler and the collaborationist Vichy regime in France, but who also disdained Charles de Gaulle and who remained fiercely independent in his views throughout the duration of the conflict. Here Mediapart's Antoine Perraud examines the revealing insights of this eccentric but perceptive character into how French society coped with one of the bleakest episodes in the country's history.

Reading articles is for subscribers only. Login

Throughout the long years of World War II, his private diaries show that the celebrated French barrister Maurice Garçon was able to maintain a remarkably clear-sighted - and inflexible – view of the world despite the Nazi Occupation and the collective spinelessness that it induced. How did this well-known lawyer manage to achieve this? Those same diaries suggest it was not for the best of reasons: for Garçon suffered from a form of disillusioned individualism.

1€ for 15 days

Can be canceled online at any time

I subscribe

Only our readers can buy us

Support a 100% independent newspaper: without subsidies, without advertising, without shareholders

Get your information from a trusted source

Get exclusive access to revelations from an investigative journal

Already subscribed ?

Forgot password ?

#FREEMORTAZA

Since January 7, 2023 our colleague and friend Mortaza Behboudi has been imprisoned in Afghanistan, in the Taliban prisons.

We do not forget him and call for his release.

Learn more about #FREEMORTAZA

Today on Mediapart

See Journal’s homepage

#FREEMORTAZA

Since January 7, 2023 our colleague and friend Mortaza Behboudi has been imprisoned in Afghanistan, in the Taliban prisons.

We do not forget him and call for his release.

Learn more about #FREEMORTAZA