Written by Jennifer Kilgore, this article delves into how starting from Édouard Drumont's, who described Joan as an “aryenne baptisée” in 1894 (a "baptized Aryan"), her legacy has been forcibly made to fit into the anti-Semitic whispers that were starting to taint the intellectual discourse in Europe in the late 1800s. Ever since the Dreyfus Affair - which Kilgmore argues fanned the same flames that would later ignite Hitler's genocidal folly against the Jews - countless political and ideological movements have been abusing Joan's legacy to support their reactionary agendas. Kilgore maps some of the most notable instances where prominent individuals of the European intelligentsia in the late 1800s have helped shape and promote what can be descried as "reactionary Joan" well into the Second World War.
While its peak can clearly be pinned to the first half of the 20th century, this disgusting abuse of Joan's legacy has never truly stopped. As recently as 2018 members of the French far-right party National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, have had their annual gatherings in front of the famous equestrian sculpture of Joan of Arc in central Paris.
Far-right leaning movements even beyond the French borders have been regularly claiming Joan as their poster child for more than a century now. Considering how powerful and controversial of a symbol Joan still is, it's unlikely her image will ever cease to be maliciously mixed with these abhorrent reactionary undertows.
The original article by Jennifer Kilgore can be read in its entirety here:
(The layout of the website is not the most comfortable for reading, I suggest scaling up the page in the browser and saving it as a pdf)
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