World War II
At the start of World War II, Trenet was mobilized. He was in barracks at Salon-de-Provence until he was demobilized in June 1940, when he moved back to Paris. There he would perform at the Folies Bergère or at the Gaîté Parisienne (two famous cabarets) in front of a public often consisting of German officers and soldiers. The collaborationist press tried to compromise his name and published that "Trenet" was the anagram of "Netter" – a Jewish name. He was able to show his family tree to the authorities, proving that he had no Jewish origin. This act of self-defence was held against him long after the war. Like many other artists of the time, he chose to go on entertaining the occupying forces rather than sacrifice his career. He agreed, when asked by the Germans, to go and sing for the French prisoners in Germany. The Épuration légale (French "legal purge"), the wave of official trials that followed the Liberation of France and the fall of the Vichy Regime, examined whether Trenet was guilty of collaboration but the inquiry resulted in a mere reprimand without any further consequences.
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