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For eight months, the Phoney War (1939-1940) froze military operations between France and Germany. This static situation did not prevent French intellectuals from seeking to mobilize consciences and their attention was focused in particular on the Scandinavian countries, which were neutral at the time. As soon as war was declared, several authors from the extreme pacifist left thus left for Norway or Sweden, in order not to participate in the war. A few months later, the resistance of “heroic Finland” to the USSR ignited the right-wing intelligentsia, which was sometimes more eager to fight communism than Hitler. The end of the fighting also prompted a wider debate in France on the position of neutrals in the conflict. The invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 provoked final stances, which were quickly drowned in the May-June 1940 disaster that engulfed France.