Posted on 12/29/2015 4:48:29 PM PST by SJackson
FILES detailing French collaboration in the murder of 76,000 Jews were made public for the first time yesterday after being locked away since the end of the Second World War.
The secret archives were opened as France faces up to its Nazi shame.
They relate to the so-called Vichy regime, led by Marshal Philippe Petain from 1940 to 1944 after the country's defeat by Hitler's Germany.
There was often enthusiastic collaboration with the Nazis by French police and paramilitaries during the Holocaust
Jews were rounded up as "enemies of the state" and sent to death camps in Germany.
Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French - by the French state
Many victims came from major cities including Paris, where occupying German forces worked closely with local officials.
Others came from the so-called "free zone" in southern France, which was at first unoccupied and from where Petain ran his puppet government in the spa town of Vichy.
A new decree says the newly opened archives can be "freely consulted" by civil servants and historical researchers - "subject to the declassification of documents covered by national defence secrecy rules".
Among the files will be disturbing evidence that French Jews were pinpointed and then betrayed.
Names of those responsible will be listed.
It comes six years after the French Council of State, the country's highest judicial body, said the Vichy government "held responsibility" for deportations and they could not solely be blamed on the Germans.
It ruled that Nazi officials did not force the French to betray their fellow citizens but anti-Semitic persecution was carried out willingly - by organisations including the Paris police and SNCF, the national railway.
Post-war French governments had previously refused to acknowledge any Vichy role in the Holocaust.
The Council of State ruling in 2009 called for a "solemn recognition of the state's responsibility and of collective prejudice suffered" by the deportees.
But it said there would be no payments for survivors or for the families of victims.
Lawyers around the world, especially in the US and Israel, are working to change that.
During his term of office, which ended in 2007, President Jacques Chirac made the most outspoken reference so far by a French head of state to involvement in the Holocaust.
He said: "These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions.
"Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French - by the French state."
Today France has western Europe's largest Jewish community, with around 500,000 people.
Many of them still complain of discrimination and persecution and claim anti-Semitism remains prevalent in the country.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Amazing the names were concealed for so long. Will be interesting to see if this caused any non prosecutions, or if any prominent individuals turn up
Vichy France has always been suspect——and I go way back.
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Calling extreme anti-semitism criminal folly is an insult to the new immgrants.
Many Jews from France knew this all along.
Um, this is news? A large percentage of the French have had an anti-Jew streak for a VERY long time. The Vichy just game them a chance to act on it, to murderous consequences.
Yes, not much of a secret. The nature of the names are interesting. I suspect most were known, but maybe not. Some countries in Europe prosecute these crimes. Germany of late and Poland come to mind. What about France? Anyone on the list involved in the management of the Velodrome and the roundups? If not, what’s the point of the list?
Yes, they saved the Germans the trouble.
“There was often enthusiastic collaboration with the Nazis by French police and paramilitaries during the Holocaust”
if anyone read the accounts of the Fwench resistance, they happily made sure the cops were targets too because they knew the city police were collaborators. The IRA did the same thing circa 1914-16.
Even the Hollywood TV and move producers knew this. Many French Jews either feel antisemitism or lack of gov’t protection from the muzzies.
Poland? They lost millions themselves, and couldn’t prevent Germany from erecting camps “in the East”. When the US had a chance to save Poland in 1939, they did nothing.
Nazi collaborators and sympathizers could be found all over Europe...and beyond.Switzerland and Spain for example.Don’t forget Lord Haw Haw.
What most don’t realize is that 75% of the Jews living in France in 1939 wound up surviving the war, one of the highest survival rates of all of the occupied countries.
The “Dreyfuss Affair” comes to mind...
In 1939, nothing the US could have done would have saved Poland. It was all over in three weeks.
Poland was doomed when the Soviets agreed to carve up Poland with the Germans.
We did even better; we allied ourselves with the other invaders of Poland - the perpetrators of the Katyn Forest massacre, “Uncle Joe” Stalin’s USSR. Six years after seizing half of Poland, we let him keep the whole thing.
France fell in a war they fought to defend Poland from Germany; that shouldn’t be overlooked. We also did nothing then, as well - when we had nearly a year to act.
The irony is that it was a blessing France fell as quickly as it did, otherwise the Soviets may have wound up getting all of Europe.
They had a socialist government when the Germans attacked; Vichy was to replace it. After watching the Spanish Civil War, France (and the rest of Europe) had no misconceptions about what the left envisioned for their future - and it wasn’t lost on them that the only people willing to help fight the communist revolution in Spain were Hitler & Mussolini (who had put down similar uprisings in their own countries). Any discussion about atrocities in Europe through the thirties and early forties must include a discussion of the communist threat faced by just about every European country; while some murder was pure genocide, others were political rather than racial or religious in nature (and the communists would like to blend the two).
The wonder is that Leon Blum somehow survived the war.
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