Je Suis Partout

Je Suis Partout
Name	Je Suis Partout
Type	Daily newspaper
Foundation	1930
Ceased publication	1944
Political	Far-right, Fascist, Collaborationist
Language	French
Headquarters	Paris

Je Suis Partout Je Suis Partout was a French weekly and later daily newspaper established in 1930 that became notorious for its far-right, nationalist, and collaborationist positions during the 1930s and World War II. Founded in Paris, it involved figures who intersected with movements and personalities across interwar and wartime Europe, influencing debates among intellectuals, politicians, and cultural actors. The paper’s trajectory linked events from the French Third Republic through the Vichy regime to postwar trials and memory.

History and Founding

Je Suis Partout was founded in 1930 in Paris during a period shaped by the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of movements such as Action Française, and the international impact of the Great Depression. Early contributors and patrons included individuals connected to networks around Jeanne Lanvin, Jules Romains, and conservative salons that intersected with figures like Charles Maurras, Maurice Barrès, and Édouard Drumont. The paper evolved alongside events such as the Rhineland occupation tensions, the Spanish Civil War, and the formation of organizations like Croix-de-Feu and Parti Populaire Français. Financial and editorial shifts brought it into contact with printers, syndicates, and cultural institutions in Île-de-France and provincial publishing houses.

Editorial Line and Ideology

The editorial line combined influences from Fascism, Italian Fascism, and National Socialism while drawing on indigenous currents exemplified by Action Française and thinkers like Robert Brasillach, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, and Charles Maurras. Articles addressed crises associated with the Great Depression, the aftermath of World War I, and responses to the League of Nations; they positioned themselves against figures and movements such as Léon Blum, Pierre Mendès France, and the Popular Front. The paper engaged with pan-European frameworks including the Axis Powers, debates about pan-Europeanism, and intellectual exchanges with proponents like Giovanni Gentile and Julius Evola while attacking opponents such as Jean Jaurès, Marcel Proust, and members of the French Section of the Workers' International.

Role During World War II and Collaboration

During the Battle of France and the establishment of the Vichy France regime, the newspaper openly supported collaborationist policies and the armistice leadership around Philippe Pétain, while advocating rapprochement with the German Reich and endorsing figures like Pierre Laval. It published commentary sympathetic to the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo and praised cultural policies of the Third Reich even as it debated relationships with movements such as the Milice française, the Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme, and the Rassemblement National Populaire. Its pages engaged with wartime events including the Battle of Britain, the Operation Barbarossa campaign, and the occupation administration centered in Compiegne and Vichy, and it intersected with figures in the German administration such as Otto Abetz and Helmut Knochen.

Key Contributors and Personnel

Prominent contributors included writers and intellectuals linked to interwar and collaborationist circles such as Robert Brasillach, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Lucien Rebatet, and editors who connected with cultural personalities like Jean Cocteau, Maurice Bardèche, and critics in salons frequented by Colette and André Gide. Journalistic staff had contacts with politicians and operatives including Joseph Darnand, Marcel Déat, Jacques Doriot, and diplomats who engaged with Réné Bousquet and German liaison figures. The paper’s networks extended to printers, theatrical critics, and artists overlapping with names like Edouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, and musicians who performed at venues associated with collaborationist cultural initiatives.

Content, Style, and Cultural Impact

The newspaper combined polemical columns, theater and literary criticism, caricatures, and political essays, often echoing debates over works by Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, and contemporary authors such as André Malraux and Simone de Beauvoir. Its style drew on journalistic models from publications like L'Action française, Candide (magazine), and Gringoire, and it influenced discourses in salons, radio networks such as Radiodiffusion nationale, and literary circles linked to the Prix Goncourt and the Académie française. Cultural impact was visible in theater reviews referencing productions at the Comédie-Française, exhibitions at the Musée du Louvre, and debates about modernist art movements like Surrealism and Cubism.

Controversies and Legal Consequences

The paper’s vociferous anti-Semitic campaigns and endorsement of racial policies echoed the rhetoric of figures such as Édouard Drumont, Alfred Rosenberg, and French anti-Semitic leagues, targeting personalities including Marcel Proust, Irène Némirovsky, and Jewish artists associated with institutions like Opéra Garnier. After Liberation, key staff were arrested by authorities from the Forces françaises de l'intérieur and faced trials before tribunals influenced by the Épuration légale process, with judgments connected to statutes enacted under the Provisional Government of the French Republic led by Charles de Gaulle. Convictions and sentences involved debates over collaboration, press freedom, and responsibilities tied to the Ordonnances de 1944 and measures overseen by figures such as Georges Bidault.

Legacy and Reception Post-1945

Postwar reception involved censorship, bans on publication, and long-term debates in scholarship engaging historians like Pierre Nora, Annette Wieviorka, Robert Paxton, and Serge Berstein. The newspaper’s archives became subjects of study in works addressing the Vichy regime, the Holocaust in France, and intellectual collaboration, influencing exhibitions at institutions such as the Mémorial de la Shoah and university research in departments connected to Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, and archives in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Memory of the paper figures in legal and cultural discussions alongside trials of collaborators like Robert Brasillach and broader reckonings with wartime censorship, rehabilitation, and the reshaping of French political culture during the Fourth Republic and beyond.

Category:Newspapers published in France Category:French collaboration during World War II