I am a History major at the University of California, Santa Barbara, currently in my senior year. After studying in Bordeaux, France, for a year, I became interested in the government of Vichy and the role that France took during the Second World War. I was especially intrigued about the concentration camps directly located in France and I wanted to learn more about that. As an offshoot of that interest, I am currently working on a Senior Honors Thesis dealing with the crimes against humanity trial against former Nazi SS Leader Klaus Barbie that took place in 1987. In addition, my work for Prof. Marcuse’s class on the Holocaust (History 33D) has given me another opportunity to further explore the world of Jews in France during the war.

I am a second year History major at UCSB. My mother grew up in France for twenty-two years of her life, French was my first language, and I have spent a good deal of time in France. Several times, in studying WWII, I briefly came upon mention of Vichy French cooperation with the Nazis and became interested in why, if the Germans and French for years had been bitter enemies, did many of the French cooperate almost too willingly with the Germans. For this project in Prof. Marcuse’s on the Holocaust I examine the motivations and explanations for cooperation versus the reality of cooperation and French anti Semitism.