The Associative Action of the Broken Faces in the Making of a Mixed Economy of Welfare in Interwar France

Disfigured combatants often experienced a difficult reintegration in the social and family contexts after the Great War. In France, the law on war pensions of 1919 did not even recognise disfiguration on the invalidity scale. Against this backdrop, the Union des blessés de la face et de la tête (UBFT) was created in 1921 to coordinate action for these veterans, commonly nicknamed ‘broken faces’. The UBFT aimed to raise public awareness about the condition of the facially disfigured, to advance their care, and to lobby for the full recognition of their social rights. The association also provided voluntary benefits and organised activities for its members and raised funds for their medical care. By looking at its associative action, the chapter scrutinises how the UBFT managed to integrate this originally marginalised group into the solidarity practices and discourses in interwar France. Their case helps us to grasp the conflicts and synergies between self-help networks and public intervention, and how this associative fabric contributed to shape the French mixed economy of welfare between the two wars.