Robert Guédiguian’s film Army of crime (2009) should be understood in the context of contemporary debates about French national identity and the contribution of immigrants to French society (see interview with the lead actor,Simon Abkarian). The film throws light on the role played iby anti-fascist refugees from Spain, Hungary, Poland, Armenia, Italy during the Second World War in France (See Official UK Trailer[Youtube]). These refugees, often Jews, close or members of the Communist Party, saw France as the country of human rights and were often the first one to organise resisters’ networks. Fighting in the Communist-led FTP-MOI (Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d'œuvre immigrée), they were specifically targetted by the Nazis and the Vichy regime, as testified by the infamnous ‘Affiche rouge’. Poetry (Louis Aragon’s 1956 Strophes pour se souvenir) and mortuary monuments (such as the ones to be found in the Pére Lachaise cimetry in Paris, commemorating the role of Spaniards and immigrants in the Resistance movements),have been the traditional media through which their memory has been commemorated. Recently, Toulouse, ‘capital of Spanish republican exile’, has set up a ‘remembrance tour’ of the city. The Ciy Council has produced a (touristic?) leaflet to guide visitors through the major sites of Spanish Resistance (included here). A short bibliography points to the way academic research has also approached the subject.

Listed here are links to Mass Observation Special Reports in the University of Sussex Special Collections catalogue, digitised as part of the Observing the 1980s Project. Users can click on additional links to a PDF of the panel member's report, and to an entry in the catalogue providing more information about them. Special Reports is the term given to spontaneous responses from Mass Observation Project Panel members, writing either outside the range of Directive topics or sending in further comment on a subject already covered at an earlier date. The Special Reports were selected for their relevance to themes addressed in the undergraduate history course ‘1984: Thatcher’s Britain’ at the University of Sussex.