Jean-Pierre Azéma

Jean-Pierre Azéma, born in 1937, is a French historian, and the son of the Réunionese poet Jean-Henri Azéma. His father was a leading propagandist for the black-shirted Milice during the occupation and lived in exile in South America after the war.

A specialist of World War II, and more specifically of the Vichy Regime and the French Resistance, Jean-Pierre Azéma is a university lecturer and teaches history at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. He is a member of the scientific counsel for the Institut François Mitterrand, an organisation founded by François Mitterrand with the goal of "contributing to the propagation of knowledge on the political and social history of modern France".

Azéma is the author of several prominent historical works, making him somewhat an authority amongst France's historians.

He was also one of the historians called as witness for the trial of Maurice Papon, (alongside Marc-Olivier Baruch, Robert O. Paxton and Philippe Burrin). He is also one of the authors of the film "L’Œil de Vichy" ("The eye of Vichy") by Claude Chabrol.

He is the father of Vichy historian, Arianne Azéma.

Select works

*"6 juin 44", 2004 (with Robert O. Paxton, Philippe Burrin)
*"Jean Moulin : le politique, le rebelle, le résistant", 2003
*"Jean Cavaillès résistant ou La pensée en actes", 2002 (written under his direction)
*"De Münich à la Libération : 1938-1944", new edition., 2002
*"Vichy : 1940-1944", 2000 (with Olivier Wieviorka)
*"1938-1948 : les années de tourmente : de Munich à Prague : dictionnaire critique", 1995 (with François Bédarida)
*"Histoire de l'extrême droite en France", 1994 (under the direction of Michel Winock)
*"Les libérations de la France", 1993 (with Olivier Wieviorka)
*"La France des années noires", 1993 (with François Bédarida)
*"Le régime de Vichy et les Français", 1992 (with François Bédarida)
*"La IIIe République : 1870-1940", new edition, 1991 (with Michel Winock)
*"1940, l'année terrible", 1990
*"Les communistes français de Munich à Châteaubriant : 1938-1941", 1987 (with Antoine Prost and Jean-Pierre Rioux)
*"Histoire générale politique et sociale : la France des années sombres, les années 40", 1987
*"La collaboration : 1940-1944", 1975
*"Les Communards", 1964 (with Michel Winock)