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Conclusion

Reinventing French Aid?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2021

Laure Humbert
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Summary

By examining the forgotten history of refugee relief in the French zone, this book reveals that ‘caring’ for DPs became a political and moral project, overseen by the French state, international organisations, and occupation authorities. It demonstrates that French practices towards DPs were deeply implicated in the mixed record of the French zone: DP camps were both sites of violent discipline, but also spaces of valuable educational opportunities and exchange across cultures. Not only were French occupation officials and relief workers concerned about the image of France circulating in DP camps, but they also drew a number of DP artists into the orbit of French cultural diplomacy in Germany. For French occupiers and relief workers, exhibiting French cultural richness and selling the ‘French way of life’ was considered as a tool to express and project French political power. Fundamentally, this book nuances the view that the Second World War was a radically ‘modernising’ and ‘internationalising’ moment in the history of humanitarianism. French approaches to relief work were underpinned by gendered assumptions, racial prejudices and the received wisdom of the superiority of certain ethnic groups over others.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reinventing French Aid
The Politics of Humanitarian Relief in French-Occupied Germany, 1945–1952
, pp. 325 - 333
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Conclusion
  • Laure Humbert, University of Manchester
  • Book: Reinventing French Aid
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108916981.008
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Conclusion
  • Laure Humbert, University of Manchester
  • Book: Reinventing French Aid
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108916981.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Laure Humbert, University of Manchester
  • Book: Reinventing French Aid
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108916981.008
Available formats
×