A theory goes back to World War II, when German troops swept into France and a pro-Nazi government was established at the spa town of Vichy, a haunt of the privileged classes. Henry Chavin, head of the Vichy police, wrote a report claiming the existence of a conspiracy within the French elite to welcome a German invasion with open arms. Historians have been very skeptical of this report, but in recent years, this theory of “synarchy” has been taken up by many, notably the French historian Annie Lacroix-Riz.

Lacroix-Riz is an active Communist whose work focuses on the establishment of the Vichy regime. She aims to show that there was a significant body of support for the Germans in the French ruling class and among its middle-class supporters. Even Lacroix-Riz’s critics acknowledge that she has done a prodigious amount of archival research, and she produces a long catalogue of names of those who supported Vichy.

Yet Lacroix-Riz has been accused of discovering a conspiracy where none existed. The American political scientist Robert Paxton, who has himself produced work showing the substantial support that existed for Vichy, has been critical of her work.