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The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach cover

The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach

Alice Kaplan

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The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach

On February 6, 1945, Robert Brasillach was executed for treason by a French firing squad. He was a writer of some distinction—a prolific novelist and a keen literary critic. He was also a dedicated anti-Semite, an acerbic opponent of French democracy, and editor in chief of the fascist weekly Je Suis Partout, in whose pages he regularly printed wartime denunciations of Jews and resistance activists. Was Brasillach in fact guilty of treason? Was he condemned for his denunciations of the resistance, or singled out as a suspected homosexual? Was it right that he was executed when others, who were directly responsible for the murder of thousands, were set free? Kaplan's meticulous reconstruction of Brasillach's life and trial skirts none of these ethical subtleties: a detective story, a cautionary tale, and a meditation on the disturbing workings of justice and memory, The Collaborator will stand as the definitive account of Brasillach's crime and punishment. The Collaborator was a National Book Award Finalist and a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.

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Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Year
2014
ISBN-13
9780226308746
Genre
History
Topics
Nazi collaboration in FranceWorld War II justice and treason trialsFascism and antisemitism

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