The Jews of France in the Holocaust

From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi ideology mobilized German society, its administration and its army, made up of doctors, lawyers, intellectuals, artists, trade unionists, as well as its industry and economic resources, first to exclude, then to eradicate from the surface of the earth, physically and culturally, all Europeans born Jews.

The help of other governments and local administrations that provided the framework and logistics, and sometimes even more so, the indifference of the majority of European populations, at least for a time, contributed to the magnitude and effectiveness of the crime.

A singular, archaic and modern genocide in twentieth-century Europe, as evidenced by the different phases of this mass crime that began first in the ghettos of Poland, which continued with massive shootings in Ukraine, then became widespread in the extermination centers of Upper Silesia.

'Vichy promulgated the status of the Jews in France,' articles from the anti-Semitic and collaborationist press, October 19, 1940. © Shoah Memorial

Between 1940 and 1944, the Jews of France were also hit hard by anti-Semitic legislation, French and German, by internment then deportation. They undergo the exclusion of a society in which they believed themselves to be integrated and through which they believed they were protected. During the summer of 1942, the Vichy government delivered to the German occupier children under sixteen years old, as well as 10,000 foreign Jews from the southern zone who had been rounded up in a part of the territory under French administration.

Marshal Philippe Pétain is welcomed by Adolf Hitler at the station of Montoire-sur-le-Loir. Loir-et-Cher, October 24, 1940. © Shoah Memorial

In this fight for life, the behavior of the Jewish population is decisive. After a period of illusions, according to the expression of the historian Georges Wellers, the Jews of France take their destiny in hand, and decide to fall totally or partially into clandestinity, individually or through the Jewish rescue networks. While they are trying to escape the Vichy police and the German occupation troops, their determination is relayed and supported by many French who were moved by the dramatic scenes they witnessed during the mass arrests of summer 1942.

Nevertheless, 76,000 Jews, including more than 11,000 children, were deported by the Nazis with the help of the Vichy government and torn from life. 25% of the Jewish population in France is a victim of the Holocaust.

Jewish internees, Drancy camp (Seine-Saint-Denis). France, 12/1942. © Shoah Memorial

After years of amnesia, Jacques Chirac, the President of the Republic, finally recognized in July 1995 the responsibility of the French State in the persecution and deportation of the Jews of France. This declaration made possible the transition from memory to history and the integration of this history into that of France, in all its complexity, both that of collaboration and that of the Righteous who helped save three quarters of the Jews living in France.

This story is close to us, it took place in our country, in our cities and villages, then tragically continued in the killing centers erected by the Nazis in Poland, in the heart of Europe. It’s up to all of us to appropriate, live and build with this crime, and despite this crime. It is also up to all of us to use the history of the Shoah, without distorting it, without trivializing it, without instrumentalizing it, in order to question our present and preserve the future of our freedoms.

Discover the history of the Jews during the Second World War in Europe and more precisely in France in the permanent exhibition of the Shoah Memorial in Paris on nearly 1000 m2. Also visit the Memorial of the Shoah of Drancy which traces all the history of this major camp of the persecution of the Jews of France.

to read

The Jews of France in the Holocaust, of Jacques Fredj, Shoah Memorial, 2011.

Catalog of the permanent exhibition of the Shoah Memorial.

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