A Case for Dissidence in Occupied Paris: The Zazous, Youth Dissidence and the Yellow Star Campaign in Occupied Paris (1942)

摘要

In Occupied Paris in June 1942, non-Jewish Parisians protested against the ordinance requiring Jews to wear the yellow star. Based largely on police archives, this article examines a subgroup within the protest made up of non-Jewish youth known as the Zazous. The Zazous were known for their attraction to jazz swing culture, music and dress, which both the Germans and Vichy considered delinquent and unpatriotic. Previous work on this period has tended to ignore the Zazous, or to reject them as a dissident subculture. This article argues that, through their participation in protests against the yellow star and by making their own yellow stars with the words ‘swing’ and ‘Zazou’, the Zazous were making political statements of dissent within an oppressive environment. The Zazous and their participation in yellow star protests complicate definitions used in discussing resistance, collaboration and dissidence during the Second World War.