Product Description

From 1940 to 1942, French secret agents arrested more than two thousand spies working for the Germans and executed several dozen of them - all despite the Vichy government's declared collaboration with the Third Reich. A previously untold chapter in the history of World War II, this duplicitous activity is the gripping subject of "The Hunt for Nazi Spies", a tautly narrated chronicle of the Vichy regime's attempts to maintain sovereignty while supporting its Nazi occupiers. Simon Kitson informs this remarkable story with findings from his investigation - the first by any historian - of thousands of Vichy documents seized in turn by the Nazis and the Soviets and returned to France only in the 1990s. His pioneering detective work uncovers a puzzling paradox: a French government that was hunting down left-wing activists and supporters of Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces was also working to undermine the influence of German spies who were pursuing the same Gaullists and resisters. In light of this apparent contradiction, Kitson does not deny that Vichy France was committed to assisting the Nazi cause, but illuminates the complex agendas that characterized the collaboration and shows how it was possible to be both anti-German and anti-Gaullist. Combining nuanced conclusions with dramatic accounts of the lives of spies on both sides, "The Hunt for Nazi Spies" adds an important new dimension to our understanding of the French predicament under German occupation and the shadowy world of World War II espionage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #397747 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Review
"The pungent details give Kitson's book a particular force: the incidents of head-shearing, the intimations of torture, the leakages back to the German authorities of the places where the spies were held, the contempt of the Vichy secret services for British agents.... All these elements make an English edition of the book a necessity." - Rod Kedward, Times Literary Supplement, on the French edition "Simon Kitson has drawn from intensive study of French archives the first full picture of Vichy's counterintelligence activities. We can now see more clearly how Vichy France tried (ultimately unsuccessfully) to collaborate with Nazi Germany as a sovereign and neutral state, master of its own territory and administration." - Robert O. Paxton, author of Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order"

About the Author
Simon Kitson is a senior lecturer in French studies at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Experiencing Occupation in Western Europe, 1940-45. Catherine Tihanyi is a translator and research associate at Western Washington University.

Customer Reviews

Rings very true
The more I think about it the more I realise what a good book this is. My father was in the British secret services and used to captivate our attention by telling us of his experiences in France during the war. This book fits in with much of what he told us.

Kitson demonstrates that France did not wait until its Liberation to begin hunting down Nazi collaborators. The Vichy government, itself heavily compromised by collaboration, arrested around 2000 individuals on charges of passing information to the Germans. But this text is not an apology for Vichy. Vichy's reason for doing so was to centralise collaboration so that the state might preserve a monopoly over Franco-German relations and to defend sovereignty so that France might negotiate from a position of strength. As Kitson has shown the government engaged in many compromises along the way which weakened its policy.

'The Hunt for Nazi Spies' casts a new light on the relationship between occupied countries and their occupier. It will be interesting to see if the processes Kitson describes are valid for other occupied countries. Lets hope other historians engage in similar debates about other countries.

The new Robert Paxton
I have read a lot about Vichy France. The way people looked at this period was changed considerably by Robert Paxton. Kitson is starting a new revolution of his own. While Paxton's magnificent text sometimes tended to over-simplify the relationship between Vichy France and Nazi Germany Kitson has put it back in all of its complexity by showing that whilst collaborating the Vichy government also organised the arrest of large numbers of individuals passing on information to the Germans. Although Kitson's book is very complex in its argument personally I found it easy to read because of his unpretentious writing style. A very commendable book.

Absorbing
As previous reviewers here have noted Kitson manages to pack in a lot of information in a short space. It would be utterly wrong to see this book as just about the battle between Secret Services: its message runs much deeper than that. It offers a new interpretation of the France's wartime 'Vichy' government.

Chapter one deals with the organisation of the German Secret Services operating in France and the policies pursued by the occupier.

Chapter two entitled 'Becoming a spy' explains the diverse motivations of the German agents.

Chapter three sets out the organisation of the French counter-espionage services underlining the dangers their personnel faced.

Chapter four entitled 'Secret Service Ambiguities' shows the complex attitudes of the French counter-espionage services who were hostile to the Allies but even more so to the axis. It explores their relationship to the Vichy government.

Chapter five 'Everyday counterespionage' outlines the techniques used by counter-espionage services. It is revealing about the input of the Vichy government to this process.

Chapter six 'The fate of the spies' was for me the most interesting. Most books on espionage pay little attention to the treatment of spies in prison. I found this particularly absorbing.

Chapter seven 'Understanding Vichy's policy' sets the whole question of counter-espionage in its political context. This offers a genuinely new interpretation of the Vichy government.

I had read the exceptionally positive reviews the book got in the press but until I picked up a copy I didn't realise just how absorbing it was.