PETAIN AND THE JEWS: NO DOUBTS REMAIN
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definitive evidence that the status of Jews is the personal will of Marshal
Petain, Klarsfeld says. The status of Jews is a measure specifically French and
spontaneous. The Germans did not ask Vichy France to draft that status. But
there was a competition between French anti-Semitism and German anti-Semitism”
was Robert Paxton in his assertions back in 1972 (Vichy France: Old Guard and
New Order, 1940-1944 ). In this article, Serge Klarsfeld the famous Nazi hunter
based in Paris clearly emphasizes the importance of the document.
Michel Azaria, Vice president Judeo-Espagnol A Auschwitz, Paris, France
The Paris-based Memorial for the Memory of the Shoah (Mémorial de la Shoah) has
recently been given by an anonymous donator a very important document. It is the
draft version of the bill regarding the statute of Jews. Marshal Petain’s
handwritten remarks clearly indicate that he had decided to even go further in
the official anti-Semitic policy.
The text covers all Jews, French or foreign, while the initial idea was to save
“the descendants of French Jews born or naturalized before 1860.” Marshal Petain
indeed decided to strike this note. The scope of exclusion of Jews is also
significantly broadened. Justice and education are now completely closed. In
addition, they cannot be elected. Finally, Marshall concludes about those
anti-Jewish measures by requiring that “the reasons which justify them” to be
published in the Official Journal.
“The discovery of this draft is fundamental. It is a document showing the role
of Petain in drafting the statute and in the most aggressive direction,
revealing the profound anti-Semitism” of the head of the Vichy government, said
Serge Klarsfeld. His son, Arno Klarsfeld, ensures that there is “no doubt” that
the writing found on the document is that of Philippe Petain after comparisons
with other manuscripts signed by the marshal. “The main argument of defenders of
Petain was to say that he had protected French Jews. This argument falls,” says
Serge Klarsfeld, indicating that the text was submitted by an anonymous donor to
the Holocaust Memorial.
The fifth sheet of the project, says Mr. Klarsfeld, indicates the place of
writing and the positions of its editors: “done in Vichy, France by Marshal,
Head of State, the Vice-Chairman of the Council and eight other ministers. There
is no date or names, or signatures. The bill was debated at the Council of
Ministers on 1 October 1940 and adopted on October 3. Its final version
promulgated in the Official Gazette, October 18, 1940, contains all the
additions of Marshal Petain, including “reasons” justifying the measures.
Until now, historians could refer to only one witness, with regard to Petain and
the status of Jews, that of former foreign minister of Vichy, Paul Baudouin. In
a book published in 1946, he wrote that during the Cabinet meeting on 1 October
1940, the Government had studied “for two hours the status of Israelites. It is
the marshal who was the most severe. He stressed in particular the fact that
Justice and education should not contain any Jew. ”
“The testimony of Baudouin was formal. There was room for doubt. Now we have
definitive evidence that the status of Jews is the personal will of Marshal
Petain, Klarsfeld says. The status of Jews is a measure specifically French and
spontaneous. The Germans did not ask Vichy France to draft that status. But
there was a competition between French anti-Semitism and German anti-Semitism ”
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