RESUMO
BACKGROUND: This article provides an insight into the behaviour of adolescents during the COVID-19 crisis through a comparison with the life of young people living in France under German occupation during the Second World War. METHOD: We conducted a literature review of articles in the CAIRN, SCOPUS and PsycINFO databases using the keywords zazou, adolescent and COVID-19. RESULTS: The zazou movement was a manifestation of young people's denial of the war through derision. Initially discredited, it was subsequently violently repressed by collaborationists and supporters of Marshal Pétain, as it was interpreted as an enemy of politics. In particular, it ran contrary to the Vichy regime's desire that young French men should spearhead the national revolution. The reaction among young people was to feel that they were being used by ageing politicians, who they considered were out of touch with reality. With respect to adolescents during the COVID-19 crisis, our review found that the French government has pressurised them to make sacrifices for the rest of the population, and has ignored their greater need for social links with peers. Many adolescents feel that they have been forgotten, in the midst of measures that have been imposed upon them with no explanation. This may have led, as in the 1940s, to a feeling of being instrumentalised and demonised by politicians. CONCLUSION: We argue that, in both cases, the dominant oppressive atmosphere has fostered similar behaviours and mental mechanisms. We therefore recommend that, rather than demonising young people, efforts should be made to include them in decision-making processes, in order to improve their understanding of the situation and encourage them to feel included.