Collaborationism, in general describes the act of two or more individuals^[1], groups or organisations up to and including national governments doing something together to gain mutual benefit through making use of the concept of economies of scale. Another term often used to represent this is alliance, an agreement between two or more parties, made in order to advance common goals and to secure common interests. A secondary definition of the word Collaboration is "Traitorous cooperation with the enemy",^[2] and carries a pejorative connotations.^[3]

Etymology

The term collaborate dates from 1871, and is a back-formation from collaborator (1802), from the French collaborateur as used during the Napoleonic Wars against smugglers trading with England and assisting escape of monarchists, and is itself derived from the Latin collaboratus, pp. of collaborare "work with", from com- "with" + labore "to work." Collaboration as "traitorous cooperation with the enemy"^[4] dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Government of France and those who cooperated with or helped the Nazi Germany following the Battle of France defeat.^[5]

Application

The term is widely applied in many meanings and environments, including the arts, cinematography, scientific research, commerce, international relations, and as a legal term to denote multiple participants in a criminal offence. Ironically the term is also used to describe interaction of policing organisations with their local communities in combating crime.^[6]

In the application of the term by military law it can describe the act of treason that includes cooperating with enemy armed forces regardless of their occupation of one's country or not. As such it implies criminal activity in the service of the enemy, including giving support to enemy combat and combat support operations, intending to, or participating in combat against one's own state or country of birth, and complicity with the occupying administration in perpetrating murder, persecutions, pillage, and economic exploitation as well as participation in a puppet government administration.

History of criminal collaboration

In France, a distinction emerged between the collaborateur and 'collaborationists'. The latter expression is mainly used to describe individuals enrolled in pseudo-Nazi parties, often based in Paris, who had an overwhelming belief in fascist ideology. Collaborateur, on the other hand, could engage in collaboration for a number of more pragmatic reasons, such as preventing infrastructure damage for use by the occupation forces or personal ambition, and were not necessarily believers in fascism per se. Arch-collaborators like Pierre Laval or René Bousquet are thus distinct from collaborationists.

Alleged collaborators

References

1. ↑ p.211, Wilson in Buranen, Lunsford, Myers Roy
2. ↑ p.211, Wilson in Buranen, Lunsford, Myers Roy
3. ↑
4. ↑ p.469, OED
5. ↑ p.70, Webster
6. ↑ Australian Crime Commission, 17 January 2008 http://www.crimecommission.gov.au/content/media_rel/2008/080117_Media_Release_OCA.pdf

Sources

• Paul Webster, Petain's Crime: The Complete Story of French Collaboration in the Holocaust, Ivan R. Dee, 1999 ISBN 1566632498
• The Oxford English Dictionary, vol.3, Oxford University Press.
• Henry L. Wilson, When Collaboration becomes Plagiarism: The Administrative perspective, in Lise Buranen, Andrea A. Lunsford, Alice Myers Roy, Perspectives on Plagiarism and Intellectual Property in a Postmodern World, SUNY Press, 1999 ISBN 0791440796
• .

Suggested reading

• David Littlejohn, 1972. The Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German-Occupied Europe, 1940-45, William Heinemann Ltd., London), ISBN 043442725X
• Simon Kitson, The Hunt for Nazi Spies, Fighting espionage in Vichy France, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2008. (translation from French, Vichy et la chasse aux espions nazis, Paris, Autrement, 2005.)

See also

• Anti-fascism
• Collaboration during World War II
• Dhimmi (pejorative sense)
• Puppet government
• Pursuit of Nazi collaborators
• Quisling
• Resistance during World War II
• Treason
• Hanjian

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