Reynald Secher

[1] Under the supervision of Jean Meyer at the Paris-Sorbonne University, Secher wrote a history of his home town, La Chapelle-Basse-Mer.

[2] His thesis on the revolt in the Vendée ('Contribution à l'étude du génocide Franco-français: la Vendée-Vengé') won him a Doctorat d'État.

His thesis demonstrates that the inhabitants of the Vendée region, after they surrendered to the Republic armies in 1793, were systematically exterminated in 1794 by order of the convention led by Robespierre.

[7] Donald Sutherland of the University of Maryland claimed that Secher's figures have been superseded by the research of Jacques Hussenet, who calculated losses of 165,000.

[8] Sutherland also argued that the repression of the Vendéans did not constitute a genocide and that Secher showed "an eye-popping gullibility in crediting every anti-republican atrocity story he can find".

The historian and writer fr: Reynald Secher in France, on March 8, 2012, during his conference "Vendée from genocide to memoricide".