VICHY GOVERNMENT FOUND RESPONSIBLE FOR DEPORTING JEWS IN WW II

Vichy government found responsible for deporting Jews in WWII

By The Associated Press


Tags: Vichy, Israel News

PARIS - France's top judicial body on Monday recognized the French government's responsibility for the deportation of Jews during World War II, the clearest such recognition to date of the state's role in the Holocaust.

The Council of State found that the government of Nazi-occupied France at the time held the responsibility for deportations that led to anti-Semitic persecution

The decision released on Monday also found that the deportation had been compensated for since 1945, apparently ruling out any reparations for deportees or their families
Thousands of Jews were deported from France to Nazi death camps during the occupation. After the war, subsequent French governments took decades to acknowledge any role played by the collaborationist Vichy regime in the Holocaust.

A Paris court had sought the Council of State's opinion on a request by the daughter of a deportee who died at Auschwitz for reparations from the French state. She was also asking for material and moral damages for her own personal suffering during and after the occupation.

The council left it up to the Paris court to rule on her request.

But in its decision, the council said that it ruled that because the acts and actions by the state led to the deportation of people the Vichy regime believed to be Jews, (they) constituted errors and became its responsibility.

The council called for a solemn recognition of the state's responsibility and of collective prejudice suffered by the deportees.

Today, France has western Europe's largest Jewish community, numbering approximately 500,000.