From Liberation to Purge Trials in the "Mythic Provinces": Recasting French Identities in Alsace and Lorraine, 1918-1920

This article explores how the French state, after having recovered Alsace and the lost portions of Lorraine in 1918, used large-scale purge trials to impose a moral and ethnic view of Frenchness that was at odds with the official republican concept of citizenship. The state was joined in this endeavor by local inhabitants who, troubled by the switchover from German to French rule, denounced fellow citizens to the purge commissions in order to establish their own patriotic credentials. This moral and ethnic understanding of nationhood was not just imposed from above but also forged from below by Alsatians and Lorrainers who manipulated state institutions for their own purposes. The postwar years in Alsace-Lorraine were a turning point in modern French history, characterized by the development of racialized notions of Frenchness, the state’s willingness to ignore republican values, and the weighing of collaboration and resistance to determine national belonging and sentiment.