53

The French Red Cross was struck full force by the Second World War, far from the hagiographic character it tried to give to this period of its history. The desire expressed by Vichy to marginalize it in favor of specifically national structures, more easily instrumentalized like the Secours national, was not totally effective because of the enormous amount of help that was needed in the most varied areas and because of German preferences for an organization not directly dependent on the French state. The question of neutrality was most strongly posed towards the Germans. If one has trouble finding the leaders’ public reactions to the German diktats, it does not mean that the organization in its more global sense did not try to counter them, as can be seen by the work of the civilian prisoners department or the saving of Jewish children.