The Franco-French genocide-Wikipedia

The Franco-French genocide (subtitle Vendée-Venge ) is a historical essay by Reynald Soucher on the War of Vendée (1793-1800) and the French Revolution published in 1986 at the University Press of France, then reissued the August 17, 2006 by Perrin.

Historians Jean Meyer and Pierre Chaunu have written respectively the preface and the foreword of the work.

La Chapelle-Basse-Mer, village of Vendée. Revolution and counter-revolution (1983) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In 1983, Reynald Soucher supported a thesis of 3 ^{It is} Cycle at the Sorbonne for which he developed a so -called “scientific core” methodology. The originality of this method earned his thesis, during his publication by Perrin in 1986, to obtain the History Prize of the 1987 French Academy.

Contribution to the study of the Franco-French genocide: La Vendée-Vengé (1985) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

By extrapolating the methodology used in his 1983 thesis in all 770 municipalities in the Vendée Militaire, Reynald Soucher carried out a 940-page state doctoral thesis at the University of Paris-IVonne. It is this second illustrated thesis of 13 cards that was published in 1986 by the University Press of France under the title The Franco-French genocide: the Vendée-Venge .

“Vendée-Venge”? [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

“Brigands of the Vendée” of the “avenged” department appear in this General list of individuals condemned by decree Based in 1794 by the French Republic whose motto is “equality, freedom, fraternity or death”.

The “Vendée-Venge” subtitle corresponds to a historical reality, the name change in the Vendée during the reign of terror. At the time, the executioner who maneuver the guillotine was called “the avenger” ^{[ first ]} ; It is in this spirit that the November 7, 1793 , the mountain convention, determined to remove the Vendée, decides to rename this territory the “avenged” department, on the proposal of Antoine Merlin de Thionville ^{[ 2 ]} .

There was a precedent, following the headquarters of Lyon in October 1793 , the city had been renamed “freed commune” ^{[ 2 ]}

Main defended theses [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

According to the thesis of Reynald Soucher, the repression exercised in Vendée corresponds to a legal proto-industrial genocide which manifests:

law of first ^is August 1793 prescribing the extermination of men, the deportation of women and children, and the destruction of the territory

law of first ^is October 1793 prescribing the extermination of all « brigands » , which it identifies with the Vendée population (for example the massacre of Lucs-sur-Boulogne includes brigands in the state of embryos, babies and children, 110 of whom are under 8 years old ^{[ 3 ]} )

law of November 7, 1793 renamed the Vendée with the name of the department “Avenged”

The means of extermination [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Nantes’ drownings are one of the proto-industrial extermination means implemented by the Republicans.

Reynald Soucher lists the various proto-industrial means implemented by the emissaries of the Committee of Public Safety and the Montagnarde Convention:

• In the bridges, bags are made of men or women skin, gendarmes pants are made of human skin,
• The bread ovens are used to burn live the villagers, in Lucs-sur-Boulogne The cremation takes place in the church,
• Extermination camps are established in Noirmoutier,
• Small gas tests are carried out by the chemist-deputy Antoine-François Fourcroy, then by the pharmacist Joseph Louis Proust who developed a device using a leather ball,
• Boats are sunk in the Loire These are the “drowning of the Galotes”, the “republican marriages” consist in undressing and then binding by couple men and women before drowning them in Nantes,
• In Clisson, the fat is extracted by carbonization of the villagers, it is used to make soap.

Vendée as a matrix [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

For Reynald Soucher, the means of extermination of the Vendeans implemented by the Committee of Public Safety and the Convention foreshadowing those of the totalitarian regimes of the XX ^{It is} century, whether it was the crushing of the Tambov revolt by Lenin (Tambov was then qualified in Russian as “Vendée”), certain methods used during the genocide of the Jews by the Nazis and by Hitler, or the Khmer red genocide perpetrated under Pol Pot in Cambodia (in this case, the whole country is renamed Kampuchea Democratic).

Controversy [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The genocide [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The qualification of “genocide” in the title of the work aroused a lively controversy in France where the Vendée war was previously presented as a pacification operation ^{[Ref. necessary]} . Especially since, the release of the work coincided with the preparations for the official celebration, by the Republic, of the Bicentenary of the Revolution in 1989; A commemoration mission was created in 1986. Thus in the magazine Point n ^O 728 of August 18, 1988 , the philosopher Jean-François Revel, took sides for Reynald Soucher:

“It is very French that this state thesis, master of a 30 -year -old historian, has aroused, above all, a vocabulary quarrel. Has the first movement been to weigh the interest of archives updated after two centuries from Cellier? Measure the scale of the new information provided? Evaluate the progress made in understanding the facts? That no ! All the ceasing affairs, the doctors grabbed the question of whether the author was founded to use in his title of the term “genocide”. »»

In Le Figaro History n ° 8 of July 20, 2013 , journalist Jean Sévillia returns to the ideological reasons for the controversy accompanying the publication of the book ^{[ 4 ]} :

“The book was going to trigger a violent controversy because of its title, retained at the instigation of Pierre Chaunu, who had been part of the dry thesis jury. The word “genocide” being mainly associated with the Shoah, using it about Vendée returned to establish a comparison between the armies of the convention operating in the west in 1793-1794 and the Nazi executioners of the Jewish people, rapprochement deemed intolerable in the eyes of those for whom the French Revolution remains a sacred event. »»

On the contrary, in 2014, in War War known as the Vendée War (1793-1794) , the author Philippe Landeux refuses to describe as “genocide” what he prefers to name ” a fratricide, a national drama ».

Human skin tanners [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In 2013, the historian Jean-Clément Martin opposed the work of Reynald Soucher, on the precise argument of the Tannerie des Ponts-de-Cé, by the publication of the book An unnecessary detail? The file of tanned skins, Vendée, 1794 ^{[ 5 ]} .

Martin intends to decrease the scope of the reynald drying argument by putting the extent of the practice into perspective, although he admits reality. Thus in the review of the work published in Release of July 5, 2013 , the historian Dominique Kalifa recognizes that “in 1794, the bodies of around thirty prisoners were tanned near Angers by the health officer Pecquel, and one can find in the Carnavalet museum two copies of Constitution (1789 and 1793) connected in human skin. »» ^{[ 6 ]}

Literary success [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The edition of the University Presses of France published in 1986 was sold in 80,000 copies ^{[ 7 ]} . The success of the book was confirmed abroad by its translations in Europe as well as in the United States.

In 2006, the book was reissued by Perrin: “In fifteen days, without any advertising, all stocks are exhausted, a success that testifies to the interest that many French people have on this black page of their history”, Explain Annet Sauty de Chalon on Canal Académie ^{[ first ]} .

Translations [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The work aroused interest outside France since it was translated into Italian, English and Polish.

• Italian translation The venue genocide (Preface by Jean Meyer, presented by Pierre Chaunu), Milan, Effedieffe, 1989.
• English translation A French Genocide: The Vendee (translated by George Holoch), Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.
• Polish translation French-French genocide. Wandea Department of Vengeance (translated by Marian Miszalski), Warsaw, Iskry, 2003.

During an interview, with Annet Sauty de Chalon on Canal Académie, Reynald Soucher declares that The Franco-French genocide: the Vendée-Venge is the second work of a “set which has three” (in February 2007 ).

In 1991, he published Jews and Vendeans: from one genocide to another, manipulation of memory edited by Olivier Orban.

Reynald Sécher affirms, in the second part of his work, Disinformation around the wars of Vendée and the Vendée genocide , edited in 2009 by the Fol’fer workshop, that it was the subject of threats and pressures, first in 1985 to give up his thesis defense Contribution to the Franco-French genocide: the Vendée-Venge then, thereafter, the day after his promotion in the television program apostrophes in July 1986 .

In 2011, Reynald Soucher extended and resulted in his reflection on the Vendée genocide in a last work, Vendée: from genocide to memoricide. Mechanics of a legal crime against humanity , edited by editions du Cerf, offering unpublished documents found in the National Archives.

This work is awarded in 2012 of the Combourg Prize and the Literary Human Rights Prize.

“Brading on the recognition of the Vendée genocide of 1793-1794” (2007) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The February 21, 2007 , Lionnel Luca deputies, Hervé de Charette, Véronique Besse, Louis Guédon, Joël Sarlot, Hélène Tanguy, Bernard Carayon, Jacques Remiller and Jérôme Rivière presented to the National Assembly the “bill relating to the recognition of the Vendée genocide of 1793-1794 » ^{[ 8 ]} . This bill n ^O 3754, which occurs less than a year after the reissue of the work The Franco-French genocide: Vendée-Venge, explicitly reference to the work and its author:

“Pierre Chaunu, historian and member of the academy of moral and political sciences since 1982, did not hesitate to speak of Franco-French genocide in the foreword of the book of Reynald Soucher that he signed:” We have never had the written order of Hitler concerning the Jewish genocide, we have those of Barrère and Carnot relating to the Vendée. »The means used to do this, reported in particular by Reynald Soucher ( cf . work cited above), or by Michel Ragon ( 1793, the Vendée insurrection and the misunderstandings of freedom , Paris, Albin Michel, 1992 ), were numerous: purification by sexual mutilation, creation of the first extermination camp of modern history in Noirmoutier, first tests of mass gas (failure, due to the gas used and the absence of confinement), first cremations With bread ovens and churches (example of the Lucs-sur-Boulogne church where lives were burned 563 villagers), collective drownings with the “gallows of the Galiotes” or in couples with “republican marriages in the Loire, creation At the bridges of workshops to tan human skin-skin from which republican officers clothes-and fat extraction by carbonization of the bodies of the villagers massacred in Clisson. By dint of killings, municipalities, however republican, and representatives of the Committee of Public Safety end up being moved. Turreau is noted from his functions in May 1794 , then decreed with arrest in September. Judged in December 1795 , it is acquitted unanimously. »»

This bill n ^O 3754 includes a single article which is as follows: “The French Republic recognizes the Vendée genocide of 1793-1794” ^{[ 8 ]} .

“A bill aimed at officially recognizing the Vendée genocide of 1793-1794” (2012) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The 6 mars 2012 , the deputies Dominique Souchet, Véronique Besse, Bernard Carayon, Hervé de Charette, Nicolas Dhuicq, Marc Le Fur, Lionnel Luca, Jacques Remiller and Jean Ueberschlag have, in turn proposed, a bill “aimed at officially recognizing the Vendée genocide from 1793-1794 ”and comprising the same unique article ^{[ 9 ]} .

This time again, the bill ( n ^O 4441) refers to the Reynald Soucher’s work:

“University research has long been locked ideologically and almost silent on the events of Vendée. But, from 1986, she began to devote important work to them ” ^{[ 9 ]} .

“Brading on the recognition of the Vendée genocide of 1793-1794” (2013) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

A third time, the recognition by the French Republic of the Vendée genocide was subject to the vote. Thus, the January 16, 2013 , the bill ( n ^O 607) proposed by Lionnel Luca deputies, Véronique Besse, Jacques Bompard, Alain Lebœuf, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, Alain Marleix and Yannick Moreau was registered as the presidency of the National Assembly. The foreword to Reynald Soucher’s work is explicitly quoted:

“Pierre Chaunu, historian and member of the academy of moral and political sciences since 1982, has not hesitated to speak of Franco-French genocide in the foreword to the book of Reynald Soucher that he signed:” We have never had the written order of Hitler concerning the Jewish genocide, we have those of Barrère and Carnot relating to the Vendée. ” »»

This bill ( n ^O 607) begins with a reminder of January 23, 2012 which is the date on which the French Parliament, in addition to the 2001 law recognizing the Armenian genocide, adopted a bill repressing the challenge of the existence of the Armenian genocide. Although largely passed by the National Assembly the December 22, 2011 , then by the Senate the January 23, 2012 , this repressive bill was rejected by the Constitutional Council, the February 28, 2012 .

In a press release January 18, 2013 , Alexis Corbière, national secretary of the left party, described the bill relating to the recognition of the Vendée genocide of 1793-1794 of ” An act unworthy of French parliamentarians » ^{[ ten ]} believing that ” He should not have his place in the mouth of republican parliamentarians » ^{[ ten ]} .

• Alain Gérard, Vendée: 1789-1793 , Seyssel, Champ Vallon editions, 1992.
• Jean Louis Omer , French Revolution truths , Paris, Dualpha, 2011 .
• Jean-Clément Martin , An unnecessary detail? The dossier of tanned skins: Vendée, 1794 , Paris, Vendémiaire, coll. “Revolutions”, two thousand and thirteen , 154 p. (ISBN  978-2-36358-055-9 , Online presentation ) .
• Jacques Villemain, Vendée 1793-1794, war crime? crime against humanity ? genocide? A legal study, Paris, Editions du Cerf, 2017.
• Philippe Landeux, War War known as Vendée , TheBookEdition, 2014 (979-10-90965-07-2).
• Jacques Villemain, Genocide in Vendée, 1793-1794 , Paris, Editions du Cerf, 2020, 678 p.

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