Historian Henry Rousso’s work, The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944, outlines a four-phase model that France moved through in order to accept its role as a Nazi collaborator during World War II. This thesis is an application of that Syndrome to official French commemoration of the Vél d’Hiv roundup of 1942 and the October 17, 1961 violent repression of Algerians. Both of these events occurred in the French capital at the hands of the French police and were systematically repressed from official French memory in the years after they occurred. Furthermore, it uses the 1998 trial of Maurice Papon, the chief of police during the Algerian repression who also ordered Jewish deportations during World War II, to demonstrate that although France had come to terms with its participation in WWII deportations, it had not made equivalent progress in the memory of the Algerian repression. At this time, France was in the final phase of the Syndrome, accepting the fact that it actively participated in WWII deportations of Jews. However, Papon’s indictment revealed that the country was still in the third phase of the Syndrome with regards to the events of October 17, 1961, as he was not tried for his actions in this event. These two events and their commemoration remain controversial in France today and demonstrate the country’s inability to face its difficult past.
