The dispossession of the Jews A state policy (1940-1944)

The policy of spoliation of Jews initiated by the German state, based on a legal mechanism, is becoming widespread. It is soon exported to the occupied territories and adopted by the regimes allied to the Reich, like Vichy. The French State incorporated these principles into its anti-Semitic policy as early as 1940. To this end, he enacted a specific legislative arsenal aimed at "eliminating all Jewish influence in the national economy" (law of July 22, 1941).

The systematic spoliation of companies and property belonging to Jews is thus committed throughout the entire French territory. From the identification of the Jews and their property to the "aryanization" of the latter by sale or liquidation, it is an efficient administrative process that is put in place, involving not only a significant number of administrations of the French State, but also large parts of society.

In France, and more broadly in Europe, plunder was an essential part of the process of exclusion, which later facilitated the implementation of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question".

Based on numerous documents, notably from the collections of the National and Departmental Archives, the exhibition proposes to explain the bases and workings of this state policy, by placing it in the context of Nazi Europe.