The French military invested much of its hope in the Maginot Line, a defensive military border designed to be impervious to attack. When the Germans broke through this line, French defeat seemed certain, leading to France’s quick surrender.

Within this context, the French had a difficult time holding onto hope of resistance. Like the refugee mother at Vianne’s door clinging to her dead infant, those who clung to the hope of resisting Nazi power seemed foolishly optimistic. Thus, when Vianne and Isabelle hear the radio broadcast about the French surrender and Isabelle says she wants to continue fighting, Vianne insists that resistance is futile. While history would ultimately regard French resisters like Isabelle as heroes, their pragmatism was difficult to see in the midst of the war.

Vianne’s decision to lock her doors from the oncoming refugees (and, in doing so, to lock out her sister) shows how wartime can inhibit compassion, making sympathetic people like Vianne complicit with the terrors of the war.