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France Vows Anti-Semitism Crackdown
Associated Press ^ | Sunday, July 21, 2002 | NATHALIE SCHUCK

Posted on 07/21/2002 8:14:47 PM PDT by Dog Gone

PARIS (AP) -- France's prime minister pledged Sunday that anyone involved in anti-Semitic acts will be caught and punished -- a promise made on the 60th anniversary of France's roundup of Jews sent to Nazi death camps.

``To harm the Jewish community is to harm France, harm the values of our Republic which can leave no room for anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia,'' Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said at a gathering of 1,000 people at the Square of Jewish Martyrs.

The square marks the site where a bicycle stadium was used on July 16 and 17, 1942, as a transit camp to hold 8,160 Jews -- more than half of them children -- before they were sent to Auschwitz.

A total of 13,152 Jews were rounded up in the Paris region in those two days for deportation to Nazi death camps.

In all, about 75,000 Jews were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps during World War II when France was ruled by the collaborationist Vichy government. Only 2,500 survived.

Sunday's ceremony was France's official commemoration, held on a day devoted each year to fight anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia. A smaller commemoration organized by noted Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld was held Tuesday on the anniversary of the roundup.

A recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks has left France fearful. The Interior Ministry counted nearly 360 anti-Semitic acts -- from graffiti to firebombings of Jewish institutions -- in April when tension peaked, coinciding with growing violence in the Middle East.

Raffarin said the government ``will take all necessary measures so that these aggressions which insult our country cease.'' Those who commit such acts will be hunted down ``relentlessly'' and punished, he said.

French ministers joined Israeli Ambassador Elie Barnavi at the ceremony to honor the memories of the deported Jews. Survivors of the roundups also attended.

``I was little. I cried,'' said Raymond Anisten, who said he escaped from the bicycle stadium with the help of adults who distracted guards. ``Sixty years later, I still hear the cries,'' he said, wiping away tears.

The prime minister said France must take responsibility for its past.

President Jacques Chirac had said in a historic 1995 speech that France bears responsibility for the deportation of Jews in wartime France. Chirac broke with the official position that France's Vichy regime, which collaborated with occupying Nazis, was not synonymous with the French state.

``Antechambers of death'' like the bicycle velodrome ``were organized, administered, guarded by the French,'' Raffarin said Sunday. ``The first act of the Shoah (Holocaust) was played out here with the complicity of the French state.''


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: ribbet

1 posted on 07/21/2002 8:14:47 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Dog Gone
The original proposal read: "FRANCE VOWS ANTI-SEMITIC CRACKDOWN."
2 posted on 07/21/2002 8:22:19 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
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To: Dog Gone
Many of the French still believe THEY won WW2 and helped save the U.S.!

This is rich!

Anyone out there with lungs want to hold their breath?
3 posted on 07/21/2002 8:28:31 PM PDT by Vidalia
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To: Dog Gone

4 posted on 07/21/2002 8:39:40 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Vidalia
Weren't THEY always lecturing US about our rampant racism? Remember, they are a nation who loves the Clintons.
5 posted on 07/21/2002 8:40:46 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Paul Atreides
Remember, they are a nation who loves the Clintons.

But of course, mon aim.  Clinton is to leadership
                                       as Jerry Lewis is to comedy.

6 posted on 07/21/2002 8:47:55 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: gcruse
Sacre bleu! Mon aim = mon ami.
7 posted on 07/21/2002 8:48:41 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: gcruse
Sacre bleu! Mon aim = mon ami.
8 posted on 07/21/2002 8:48:41 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: Paul Atreides
I almost didn't notice the cheese!

Tres bien!

9 posted on 07/21/2002 8:49:54 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: gcruse
Pardon! C'est Bon Ami?
10 posted on 07/21/2002 8:53:30 PM PDT by Young Werther
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To: Young Werther
Lord knows I tried, but the only French I know, I learned from living in Canada and reading the French version of the English on cereal boxes. I blame myself.
11 posted on 07/21/2002 8:57:13 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: gcruse
Bubba: "I don't know who Sacre blew, but send her over to my place!"
12 posted on 07/21/2002 9:04:41 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Paul Atreides
LOL
13 posted on 07/21/2002 9:07:46 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: Paul Atreides
I ruined my keyboard thanks to you. That's the funniest damn picture I've seen in a long time.
14 posted on 07/21/2002 10:04:15 PM PDT by SandfleaCSC
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To: SandfleaCSC
Heh heh...sorry about that. I have a spare I can loan you until your's dries out.
15 posted on 07/21/2002 10:25:59 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Dog Gone
M*rde alors!
16 posted on 07/21/2002 11:28:55 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty
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To: gcruse
Hey lingua franca is foreign to me as well. Bon Ami is a cleanser and the other part I picked up off the floor. Well actually my Latin teacher deserves any credit for my butchering of romance languages.
17 posted on 07/22/2002 10:41:32 AM PDT by Young Werther
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