Je me souviens (film)
Encyclopedia
Je me souviens is a 2002 documentary film
about antisemitism and pro-Nazi
sympathies in Quebec
during the 1930s through post World War II
made by Montreal
filmmaker Eric Richard Scott
. The title of the film is French
for I remember, and is the official motto of Quebec
.
by Dr. Esther Delisle
that exposed the prevalence of antisemitic and extreme right-wing ideology within mainstream French Canadian
nationalist thought during the 1930s and 1940s.
Scott's documentary pointed out that antisemitism existed in other parts of Canada
, but as The Canadian Encyclopedia
says, it was in fact particularly intense in Quebec. The Roman Catholic Church
, to which almost every French Canadian had been exclusively bound for centuries and who controlled the Quebec education system, was at the forefront of the attacks on the Jewish population. Publications such as Jules-Paul Tardivel's
La Vérité
, L'Action sociale, and La Semaine religieuse disseminated anti-Jewish views throughout the province. In the 1920s, the leader of this racism
was the priest, Lionel Groulx
whose vicious attacks against the Jews influenced other clerics and teachers. Such was the influence of Lionel Groulx that French-Canadian politicians such as Henri Bourassa
urged Canada to put a halt to Jewish immigration. Mainstream media such as the French language
newspaper Le Devoir
also took up the attacks on a Jewish population that was nothing more than a tiny minority representing only 1% of the population.
Books by the French
antisemite Maurice Barrès
and the racist L'homme, cet inconnu (Man, This Unknown) by Alexis Carrel
were widely read and approved reading material for Quebec students. In their 2006 book Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944
which was based on the private diaries and papers of the late Prime Minister of Canada
, Pierre Trudeau
, academics Max and Monique Nemi wrote on the back cover that what was being taught in the 1930s and 1940s at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
and the Université de Montréal
, was that:
Je me souviens recounts the support given to the Nazi regime in Germany
by Montreal's
Le Devoir newspaper and by some French-Canadian intellectuals as well as their support for the Nazi puppet regime
of Vichy France
. The film also documents the collusion between members of the Roman Catholic clergy
and Nazi collaborators. Convicted war criminal
Jacques de Bernonville
and Georges-Benoit Montel and Jacques Duge were all given help to get into Quebec after World War II
by prominent Quebec nationalists such as Robert Rumilly, Lionel Groulx, Montreal mayor Camilien Houde. (Additional confirmation by McGill University
Professor Harold M. Waller and antisemitism expert http://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/faculty/waller/ in a 1996 article in the American Jewish Committee Archives
Filmmaker Eric Scott began the project in 1995, receiving grants from Telefilm Canada
and Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec. The film would be made in 1998, but Scott could not get the production aired for four more years. As a result of the effort of Bill Merrill, Vice-President of programming and production with CFCF-TV
in Montreal, Je me souviens was broadcast on April 28, 2002 in Quebec on Canal D
.
The film's United States
premiere came in January 2003 through the auspices of the Jewish Museum
and the Film Society of Lincoln Center
at the annual New York Jewish Film Festival.
Appearances:
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about antisemitism and pro-Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
sympathies in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
during the 1930s through post World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
made by Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
filmmaker Eric Richard Scott
Eric R. Scott
Eric Richard Scott is a Canadian film-maker working in Montreal. He has been working in television and documentary film making since the early 1980s and also works as a researcher for television programs...
. The title of the film is French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
for I remember, and is the official motto of Quebec
Je me souviens
Je me souviens is the official motto of Quebec, a province of Canada. The motto means "I remember".- Origins :In 1883, Eugène-Étienne Taché, Assistant Commissioner for Crown lands in Quebec and architect of the provincial Parliament building had the motto carved in stone below the coat of arms of...
.
Background
Eric Scott's documentary film was inspired by the 1993 book The Traitor and the JewThe Traitor and the Jew
The Traitor and the Jew is a 1992 book of non-fiction by Quebec political scientist Esther Delisle Ph.D.....
by Dr. Esther Delisle
Esther Delisle
Esther Delisle Ph.D. is a French Canadian historian and author of historical works from Quebec.Born and raised in Quebec City, she completed her BA and MA in political science at Université Laval in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, and taught political theory at a Quebec CEGEP and worked as a researcher for...
that exposed the prevalence of antisemitic and extreme right-wing ideology within mainstream French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
nationalist thought during the 1930s and 1940s.
Scott's documentary pointed out that antisemitism existed in other parts of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, but as The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...
says, it was in fact particularly intense in Quebec. The Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, to which almost every French Canadian had been exclusively bound for centuries and who controlled the Quebec education system, was at the forefront of the attacks on the Jewish population. Publications such as Jules-Paul Tardivel's
Jules-Paul Tardivel
Jules-Paul Tardivel was an American–Québécois writer and a significant promoter of Quebec nationalism....
La Vérité
La Vérité
La Vérité was the last album by Niagara. Niagara was one of the few French bands who had success and critical acclaim outside of France despite not singing in English, because of this they embarked on an international tour in 1991 which included many sold out concerts...
, L'Action sociale, and La Semaine religieuse disseminated anti-Jewish views throughout the province. In the 1920s, the leader of this racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
was the priest, Lionel Groulx
Lionel Groulx
Lionel-Adolphe Groulx was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and Quebec nationalist. -Early life and ordination:Groulx was born at Chenaux, Quebec, Canada, the son of a farmer and lumberjack, and died in Vaudreuil, Quebec. After his seminary training and studies in Europe, he taught at Valleyfield...
whose vicious attacks against the Jews influenced other clerics and teachers. Such was the influence of Lionel Groulx that French-Canadian politicians such as Henri Bourassa
Henri Bourassa
Joseph-Napoléon-Henri Bourassa was a French Canadian political leader and publisher. He is seen by many as an ideological father of Canadian nationalism....
urged Canada to put a halt to Jewish immigration. Mainstream media such as the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
newspaper Le Devoir
Le Devoir
Le Devoir is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It was founded by journalist, politician, and nationalist Henri Bourassa in 1910....
also took up the attacks on a Jewish population that was nothing more than a tiny minority representing only 1% of the population.
Books by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
antisemite Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and socialist politician and agitator known for his nationalist and antisemitic views....
and the racist L'homme, cet inconnu (Man, This Unknown) by Alexis Carrel
Alexis Carrel
Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. He invented the first perfusion pump with Charles A. Lindbergh opening the way to organ transplantation...
were widely read and approved reading material for Quebec students. In their 2006 book Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944
Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944
Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada is the intellectual biography of the former Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau that deals with his parents, childhood, and education in the province of Quebec from his birth in 1919 until November 1944 when he left to study at Harvard...
which was based on the private diaries and papers of the late Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
, Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
, academics Max and Monique Nemi wrote on the back cover that what was being taught in the 1930s and 1940s at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is a private French-language educational institution offering secondary school and CEGEP college-level instruction in Montreal, Quebec. It is a co-ed establishment for students in their final year of secondary school and in college. It is boys-only in the first four years...
and the Université de Montréal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
, was that:
- "DemocracyDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
was bad and that FascismFascismFascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
-- as represented by MussoliniBenito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and PétainPhilippe PétainHenri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
-- was good. The picture that emerges is of a Quebec elite that was raised to be pro-fascist, and where Nazi atrocities were dismissed as EnglishEnglish CanadaEnglish Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...
(Canadian) propagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
."
Je me souviens recounts the support given to the Nazi regime in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by Montreal's
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
Le Devoir newspaper and by some French-Canadian intellectuals as well as their support for the Nazi puppet regime
Puppet state
A puppet state is a nominal sovereign of a state who is de facto controlled by a foreign power. The term refers to a government controlled by the government of another country like a puppeteer controls the strings of a marionette...
of Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
. The film also documents the collusion between members of the Roman Catholic clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
and Nazi collaborators. Convicted war criminal
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
Jacques de Bernonville
Jacques de Bernonville
Jacques Charles Noel Duge de Bernonville was a French collaborationist and senior police officer in the Vichy regime in France infamously known as the man who hunted down resistance fighters during World War II....
and Georges-Benoit Montel and Jacques Duge were all given help to get into Quebec after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by prominent Quebec nationalists such as Robert Rumilly, Lionel Groulx, Montreal mayor Camilien Houde. (Additional confirmation by McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
Professor Harold M. Waller and antisemitism expert http://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/faculty/waller/ in a 1996 article in the American Jewish Committee Archives
Filmmaker Eric Scott began the project in 1995, receiving grants from Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada or Téléfilm Canada is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada.It is the primary federal cultural agency dedicated to the development and promotion of the Canadian audiovisual industry....
and Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec. The film would be made in 1998, but Scott could not get the production aired for four more years. As a result of the effort of Bill Merrill, Vice-President of programming and production with CFCF-TV
CFCF-TV
CFCF-DT is a CTV-owned and operated station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
in Montreal, Je me souviens was broadcast on April 28, 2002 in Quebec on Canal D
Canal D
Canal D is a Canadian French language Category A specialty channel owned by Astral Media. Canal D focuses on documentary programming primarily in the form of documentary-style television series that focus on a variety of topics such as crime, biographies, nature, science, and more.-History:In June...
.
The film's United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
premiere came in January 2003 through the auspices of the Jewish Museum
Jewish Museum (New York)
The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...
and the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
at the annual New York Jewish Film Festival.
Appearances:
- Irving AbellaIrving AbellaIrving Martin Abella, is a Canadian writer, historian and academic. He specializes in the History of the Jews in Canada and the Canadian labour movement...
- historian - Guy BouthillierGuy BouthillierGuy Bouthillier is a Québécois political expert, teacher and Quebec nationalist leader. He was the President of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal from 1997 to 2003...
- president of Quebec's Saint-Jean-Baptiste SocietySaint-Jean-Baptiste SocietyThe Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society is an institution in Quebec dedicated to the protection of Quebec francophone interests and to the promotion of Quebec Sovereignism. Its current President is Mario Beaulieu.... - Pierre DansereauPierre DansereauPierre Dansereau, was a Canadian ecologist known as one of the "fathers of ecology".-Biography:...
- ecologist and educator - Esther DelisleEsther DelisleEsther Delisle Ph.D. is a French Canadian historian and author of historical works from Quebec.Born and raised in Quebec City, she completed her BA and MA in political science at Université Laval in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, and taught political theory at a Quebec CEGEP and worked as a researcher for...
- historian - Jacques HébertJacques Hébert (Canadian politician)Jacques Hébert, OC was a Canadian author, journalist, publisher, Senator, and world traveler having visited more than 130 countries.-History:...
- former member of the Canadian SenateCanadian SenateThe Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister... - Irving LaytonIrving LaytonIrving Peter Layton, OC was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made enemies. As T...
- Quebec poet - Robert PaxtonRobert PaxtonRobert O. Paxton is an American political scientist and historian specializing in Vichy France, fascism and Europe during the World War II era...
- historian and Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
professor - Jean-Louis RouxJean-Louis RouxJean-Louis Roux, CC, CQ is a noted entertainer and playwright, senator, and briefly the 26th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Canada.-Biography:...
- playwright
See also
- List of Quebec films
- Cinema of Quebec
- Culture of QuebecCulture of QuebecThe Culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting from the shared history of the French-speaking majority in Quebec. It is unique to the Western World; Quebec is the only region in North America with a French-speaking majority, as well as one of only two provinces in Canada...
- History of the Jews in Canada
- Conscription Crisis of 1944Conscription Crisis of 1944The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service in Canada during World War II. It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but was not as politically damaging....
- Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada is the intellectual biography of the former Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau that deals with his parents, childhood, and education in the province of Quebec from his birth in 1919 until November 1944 when he left to study at Harvard...