Assassination in Vichy: Marx Dormoy and the Struggle for the Soul of France

by Gayle Brunelle, Stephanie Annette Finley-Croswhite

Overview

During the night of 25 July 1941, assassins planted a time bomb in the bed of the former French Interior Minister, Marx Dormoy. The explosion on the following morning launched a two-year investigation that traced Dormoy’s murder to the highest echelons of the Vichy regime. Dormoy, who had led a 1937 investigation into the “Cagoule,” a violent right-wing terrorist organization, was the victim of a captivating revenge plot. Based on the meticulous examination of thousands of documents, Assassination in Vichy tells the story of Dormoy’s murder and the investigation that followed.

At the heart of this book lies a true crime that was sensational in its day. A microhistory that tells a larger and more significant story about the development of far-right political movements, domestic terrorism, and the importance of courage, Assassination in Vichy explores the impact of France’s deep political divisions, wartime choices, and post-war memory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487588380
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	10/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Gayle K. Brunelle is a professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton.

Annette Finley-Croswhite is a professor of History and director of the Center for Faculty Development at Old Dominion University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
July 26, 1941: Explosion
     
1. 1888–1941: Marx Dormoy and the Soul of France
2. 1941: A Long, Hot Summer
3. July 26–30, 1941: Anatomy of a Crime Scene
4. August 14, 1941: A Bombing in Nice
5. 1941: Recruiting the Assassins
6. August–October 1941: The Net Widens
7. October 1941–March 1942: The Waiting Game  
8. April 18, 1942: The Return of Pierre Laval
9. January 23, 1943: German Intervention
10. August 26, 1944: Liberation

Conclusion
Today: The Legacy of Marx Dormoy

Glossary 
Organizations
Timeline
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Sean Kennedy

"An engrossing read from start to finish, Assassination in Vichy revisits the grisly murder of a neglected but vital defender of France's Third Republic. Attentive to the fraught character of wartime justice, this book combines first-rate sleuthing and masterful portraits of its subjects — ranging from Marx Dormoy himself to his killers, and the officials who tracked them — with sophisticated analysis of the historical context. For those concerned about far-right threats to democracy, this is a vital study."

William Cormack

"Assassination in Vichy provides a strong and compelling examination of the continuation of the Cagoule's intrigues and machinations into the 1940s, and places these within the larger context of factional rivalry within the Vichy Regime. Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite use their story to explore the difficulties for the French in coming to terms with the memories of Vichy and France's role in the Second World War."

Chris Millington

"This is a riveting account of an overlooked episode in the history of the French Occupation. The authors act at once as historians and detectives, piecing together the tragic final act of Marx Dormoy's life and the conspiracy of fascist terrorists responsible for his killing, while demonstrating why scholars of France should care about this story. This　accomplished and intelligent work is the perfect sequel to the authors' much-admired previous book on the Cagoule."

Editorial Reviews

"In their study of Marx Dormoy and his murder, Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite provide something for scholars and casual consumers of history alike. Fans of true crime, especially, will not be disappointed."

—Julie M. Powell, Origins, March 2021

"The research and writing pair Gayle K. Brunelle and Annette Finley-Croswhite have a knack for finding compelling stories that are historically revealing. With their new book, Assassination in Vichy: Marx Dormoy and the Struggle for the Soul of France, they again present a case study of a murder perpetrated by right-wing terrorists. As with their first book, they blend readability with intellectual rigor."

—Mattie Fitch, Marymount University, H-France

"Original in its content and insightful in its analysis, Assassination in Vichy will appeal not only to French history enthusiasts, but also to those who enjoy learning about the complex nature of wartime justice and France's rather complicated role in the Second World War."

—Catherine Gaughan, Ryerson University, The French Review
"A thrilling work of historical scholarship, thoughtful and scrupulous."—Kirkus Reviews

"This is a riveting account of an overlooked episode in the history of the French Occupation. The authors act at once as historians and detectives, piecing together the tragic final act of Marx Dormoy's life and the conspiracy of fascist terrorists responsible for his killing, while demonstrating why scholars of France should care about this story. This　accomplished and intelligent work is the perfect sequel to the authors’ much-admired previous book on the Cagoule."

—Chris Millington, Manchester Metropolitan University

" Assassination in Vichy provides a strong and compelling examination of the continuation of the Cagoule’s intrigues and machinations into the 1940s, and places these within the larger context of factional rivalry within the Vichy Regime. Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite use their story to explore the difficulties for the French in coming to terms with the memories of Vichy and France’s role in the Second World War."

—William Cormack, University of Guelph

"An engrossing read from start to finish, Assassination in Vichy revisits the grisly murder of a neglected but vital defender of France’s Third Republic. Attentive to the fraught character of wartime justice, this book combines first-rate sleuthing and masterful portraits of its subjects – ranging from Marx Dormoy himself to his killers, and the officials who tracked them – with sophisticated analysis of the historical context. For those concerned about far-right threats to democracy, this is a vital study."

—Sean Kennedy, University of New Brunswick

From the Publisher

"In their study of Marx Dormoy and his murder, Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite provide something for scholars and casual consumers of history alike. Fans of true crime, especially, will not be disappointed."

Origins, March 2021 - Julie M. Powell

"The research and writing pair Gayle K. Brunelle and Annette Finley-Croswhite have a knack for finding compelling stories that are historically revealing. With their new book, Assassination in Vichy: Marx Dormoy and the Struggle for the Soul of France, they again present a case study of a murder perpetrated by right-wing terrorists. As with their first book, they blend readability with intellectual rigor."

H-France - Mattie Fitch

"Original in its content and insightful in its analysis, Assassination in Vichy will appeal not only to French history enthusiasts, but also to those who enjoy learning about the complex nature of wartime justice and France's rather complicated role in the Second World War."

The French Review - Catherine Gaughan

★ 2022-09-23
A nonfiction book offers a meticulous account of the assassination of a prominent Socialist by right-wing terrorists during the Nazi occupation of France.

Once France’s Third Republic was replaced by an authoritarian Vichy Regime, the future prospects of Marx Dormoy seemed inauspicious. He was a famous French Socialist politician who vehemently opposed an appeasement with the Germans. He also waged a relentless and ultimately successful takedown of the “Comité secret d’action révolutionnaire,” colloquially known as the Cagoule, right-wing extremists who supported the replacement of the republic with a Mussolini-style Fascist regime. Dormoy was arrested and confined to the town of Montélimar in 1941 by dint of an order signed by Maréchal Philippe Pétain. Then on July 26 of that year, Dormoy was assassinated—a powerful bomb was planted in his hotel room. Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite provide a dizzyingly painstaking investigation of the crime and its perpetrators, demonstrating conclusively that it was executed by members of the Cagoule and likely had support from high-ranking officials within the Vichy government. The authors limn a remarkably precise anatomy of the “politically dangerous” police investigation that ensued as well as a lucid and moving synopsis of Dormoy’s courageously patriotic life, which ended with an “ignominious demise.”At the heart of this gripping historical study is a portrait of a frighteningly divided France beset by political polarization, a nation that continued to struggle with those fissures after the war. Dormoy’s “life, death, and legacy is also the story of the struggle over the ways in which French people chose to remember, or forget, the last decade of the feeble Third Republic and the terrible war years as they sought to build a new France after the Liberation, a France that, it must be remembered, exonerated many, if not most, for their wartime crimes.” In fact, even the erection of a statue of Dormoy in Montluçon years later proved controversial. The same France that could not bring all of the politician’s murderers to justice found that it could not fully grapple with the meaning of his life: “Dormoy was largely forgotten by 1950 because France needed to recover from the trauma of the war and construct a consensus about French identity that required a selective amnesia about the troubled 1930s and the war years. The very existence of a French ‘civil war’ needed to be elided from historical memory in order to avoid the same conflicts that rent France before the war from breaking out again once peace in Europe had been restored.” As impressive as the account of Dormoy’s death and the portrait of his life are, the intellectual backbone of this marvelously edifying book remains the nuanced articulation of France’s identity crisis, one not resolved but rather repressed in the wake of its wartime trauma. At some points, readers may feel buried under a pile of minutiae—the authors spare no details, often packaged within long, cascading paragraphs. But this is a minor quibble—this magisterial study deserves and amply repays readers’ patient labors.

A thrilling work of historical scholarship, thoughtful and scrupulous.

Kirkus Reviews