Vichy syndrome (French: syndrome de Vichy) is a term used to describe the guilt, denial and shame of French people regarding the actions of Vichy France. It was coined by historian Henry Rousso in his book The Vichy Syndrome (1987), wherein Vichy and the state collaboration of France remains a "past that doesn't pass away".[1] Historiographical debates are still passionate and oppose different views on the nature and legitimacy of Vichy's collaborationism with Germany in the implementation of the Holocaust.[2][3]
Much of France has reacted with outrage to Le Pen's strong showing in the presidential elections. Yet it is a country that, over decades, has had to come to terms with its fascist past during the war years. And nowhere is an uncomfortable amnesia more prevalent than in the town which gave its name to collaboration
The 1960s and 1970s saw gradual changes in the French attitude toward the Holocaust, including a growing awareness of the Vichy regime's extensive collaboration with the Nazis in persecuting French Jewry [...] Trials of the [...] French collaborators such as Paul Touvier (1992) and Maurice Papon (1997) provoked deep emotions in the French public. Subsequently, the historian Henri Rousso introduced the term "the Vichy syndrome" to describe the French obsession with the Holocaust.