Fascism and antisemitism in France in the 1930s: a compelling convergence?

Reference to Anti-Semitism was commonly shared by European regimes of the 1930s, which presented themselves as fascist. In France, the electoral success of the Popular Front and Lion Blum stirred up violent campaigns against Jews. Far-right activists took up the torch of the Dreyfus affair anti-Semitism, but the political and historical traditions they claimed to personify were inevitably influenced by Nazi ideology. This paper focuses on the individuals and groups who tried to make use of the "fascist" or "National Socialist" qualification in the French political context during the 1930s and looks more particularly at the position of Anti-Semitic activists in this respect. Anti-Semitism gave "national" roots and a political/ideological content to the programme of the French fascists, while Anti-Semitic activists were irresistibly attracted by Nazism.