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 a nd 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 offi cial republican concept of citizenship. The state was joined in this endeav or by local inhabitants who, troubled by the switchover from German to Fren ch rule, denounced fellow citizens to the purge commissions in order to est ablish their own patriotic credentials. This moral and ethnic understanding of nationhood was not just imposed from above but also forged from below b y Alsatians and Lorrainers who manipulated state institutions for their own purposes. The postwar years in Alsace-Lorraine were a turning point in mod ern 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 a nd sentiment.