A Case of “Returning to the Land” under the Vichy Regime (1942-1944)

The Law of 30 May 1941 aimed to encourage “the return to the land of families of peasant origin” by offering them a financial payout. We examine the journey of one of these beneficiaries, celebrated by Vichy propaganda in the spring of 1942 as the “twenty-thousandth return to the land”. We analyse the staging of this event based on articles and photographs from the collaborationist press. With the help of family sources, we follow the new settler in his daily work on a farm in the Sologne region. An examination of the drafting of the law by the Minister of Agriculture, Caziot, and his entourage, based on the preparatory file held in the French National Archives, provides insight into the measures taken to respond to Marshal Pétain’s call to return to the land and to the need for food production. The article highlights the agricultural policy debates between agrarian conservatives and modernists, drawing on a singular but significant case of the contradictions between representations and realities on the ground.