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In a context marked by a very acute food shortage, 40.000 insane people died of hunger in French asylums between 1940 and 1945. In which way has the most negative perception of mentally ill which dominates in the French population on the eve of the war contributed to this tragedy ? That is the most delicate question we deal with in this paper, which focuses on the analysis of the attitude of the psychiatrists often accused of having abandoned their patients to their fate.