France Marks WWII Roundup of Jews
France officially commemorated the roundup and deportation of tens of thousands of Jews by the collaborationist Vichy regime for the first time Friday, but the ceremony failed to satisfy some Jewish activists.
Prime Minister Edouard Balladur paid a moving tribute to the Jews’ suffering and pledged to fight racism and anti-Semitism. But he made only passing reference to “the horrible complicity of the (French) regime installed under the occupation.”
After the ceremony, some angry Jews sought explanations from former Chief Rabbi Rene-Samuel Sirat, who sought to calm them.
Balladur spoke at the site of a stadium where French police interned nearly 13,000 Jews on July 16, 1942.
The captives were eventually handed to the occupying Nazi German forces, who sent them to death camps.
After years of charges that France minimized the collaboration by its officials in the deportation of 76,000 Jews, President Francois Mitterrand last year declared July 16 a memorial day.
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