Chronology of the Vichy government's collaboration in the Holocaust

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France was militarily defeated and partially occupied by the Wehrmacht in the western campaign (June 1940) . From June 1944 ( landing in Normandy ) and from mid-August 1944 ( landing on the Côte d'Azur ) it was liberated by troops of the Western Allies .

In France in 1940 there were over 300,000 Jews, roughly equal parts in the occupied and unoccupied zones. Almost half of them were foreign nationals (including tens of thousands of refugees); a good half were French citizens.

On March 27, 1942, the first train with Jewish deportees started from the Royallieu concentration camp near Compiègne to the Auschwitz extermination camp . A total of 75,721 people were deported on 79 trains. Only 2500 of them could be liberated in 1945; the rest were killed .

The Nazi regime is primarily responsible for the deportations and murder of these Jews ; it exercised power in France through the occupying army. There were also staunch anti-Semites in France (see here ) or people who took part in deportation measures for a wide variety of reasons. Part of the responsibility is assigned to the Vichy regime (officially: État français, with the head of government Pierre Laval and the president Philippe Pétain ). The collaboration with the German Reich was for decades a taboo of French history ; this stood in the way of coming to terms with the past . Many Germans were or are unknown to the deportations from France and other occupied territories. France had been defeated in a blitzkrieg ; the occupation is rarely associated with war crimes or the word holocaust .

→ Main article: Vichy regime # Anti-Jewish politics

Two phases of persecution of Jews in France

One can distinguish two phases of the persecution of Jews in France during the Second World War : In October 1940, Jews of French nationality were forced out of the public service and other professional activities were restricted. In June 1942 the mass deportation of Jews to Auschwitz began.

After France's defeat in the Western campaign , part of the government apparatus tried to moderate the situation of the French people through negotiations and cooperation with the occupying power.

Jews are arrested and taken away in a bus, Paris, August 1941

The Resistance intensified its acts of sabotage and assassinations in 1941 . The government in exile ( de Gaulle ) and parts of the population supported them (morally and / or practically). The German occupation army initially responded by shooting hostages . The military commander Otto von Stülpnagel soon recognized this as counterproductive: They scared off almost no one and increased the reputation of the Resistance. He or his successor therefore demanded the deportation of 1,000 Jews for each assassination attempt and the establishment of Jewish camps. Due to a lack of railway capacity, the first transport with 1,112 Jewish prisoners did not leave France until March 27, 1942 for Auschwitz . 78 more trains followed. As early as October 1942, 42,000 foreigners (mostly Poles and Germans) had been deported to Auschwitz; most of them were gassed directly.

In 1942, further Jewish laws were introduced (including one that required the wearing of the “ Jewish star ”) without the occupiers having requested it (see below). In July 1942, the Parisian police arrested 9,000 men, 20,000 predominantly foreign Jews (French “ grande rafle ”) and locked them up in the Vélodrome d'Hiver (cycling hall).

At first the German military administration spoke of the “evacuation of the Jews to the east”, of “ labor deployment ” and “ forced labor ”, but after the seventh transport in July 1942, the stipulation that only able-bodied men should be deported was weakened and later completely dropped. Because at the same time Germany tried to recruit " voluntary foreign workers " from France for its war production or to recruit forced laborers. When old people, women and, since August 1942, even children of all ages were put into the freight cars, it was clear that it was no longer about work, but about the extermination of the Jews living in France. The occupying power kept less and less to the agreement with the Vichy regime not to deport any French Jews, and from mid-1943 no longer at all. After the occupation of southern France by Wehrmacht troops, the "Sonderkommando Alois Brunner " carried out a real manhunt in southern France as well.

On the German side, mainly three German institutions were actively involved in the persecution of the Jews in the occupied north: the military administration, the SS and the German ambassador. This especially in his function as a liaison to the government recognized by the Nazi regime. These three pursued somewhat different goals and their responsibilities were inadequately demarcated from one another.

In September 1940, the Reich Security Main Office set up the "Jewish Department in Paris" under Theodor Dannecker as chief to organize the deportation. In terms of discipline, he was subordinate to Helmut Bone , the head of the Security Police (Sipo). Carl-Albrecht Oberg became higher SS and police leader in May 1942.

On the French side, the “ General Commissioner for Jewish Issues ” was founded on March 29, 1941 on the instructions of Admiral F. Darlan , who followed a request from the German authorities. His policy was to keep the implementation in hand in France. This made thousands of French police officers and government officials henchmen for the main German perpetrators.

Chronology of a collaboration

The following chronology of the arrests and transports essentially follows the 1993 book by François and Renée Bédarida, La persécution des juifs (The persecution of the Jews).

1940

  • July 10th - In parliament , Pierre Laval transfers powers to World War I Field Marshal Pétain , who becomes the de facto head of state with dictatorial power.
  • July 22nd - Under Justice Minister R. Alibert , a commission is set up to review the 500,000 naturalizations (naturalizations) since 1927. As a result, 15,000 people lose French nationality , 40% of whom are Jewish citizens.
  • July - Germany deported over 20,000 Jewish French from occupied Alsace-Lorraine to France, which they deported to camps in the unoccupied south (in connection with the Wagner-Bürckel campaign - these two SS functionaries act as heads of civil administration ).
  • August 20 - from Angoulême in the occupied zone, the first deportation train from France with Spanish republicans leaves for the German concentration camp Mauthausen near Linz , the " Convoi des 927 ". Only a few prisoners on this train experience the end of the war.
  • September 27th - Order of the German occupying power on the Jewish statute in occupied French territory. I.a. the shops were called "Jew", the owners of which were Jewish.
  • September 27th - A new law of the Vichy regime makes it possible to internment any unemployed foreigner
  • October 3rd - First Statute of Jews (French: Lois sur le statut des Juifs ). French Jewish people are excluded from public office, the army, education and the press, radio and cinema. Restrictions in the liberal professions are possible.
  • October 4th - The prefects are allowed to intern foreigners of "Jewish race".
Poster: Under Aryan administration, Laon 1940
  • October 18 - The military commander of Paris, Otto von Stülpnagel, has an Aryan provisional administration for Jewish companies in occupied France. The Aryanization ( de-Jewification ) was carried out by the Service du Controle of the Vichy government, with Stülpnagel reserving the right to appoint trustees for Jewish industrial companies in order to be able to favor German buyers.
  • French Jews from Algeria are deprived of their citizenship (granted after the Décret Crémieux of 1871).

1941

Prisoners in the Beaune-la-Rolande camp, photo taken by the German propaganda company from 1941
  • March 29th - Formation of the General Commissariat for Jewish Questions (French: Commissariat général aux questions juives , CGQJ). Xavier Vallat becomes its first commissioner.
  • May 13th - In the occupied zone: first raid on foreign Jews (3747 of the 6494 wanted are imprisoned in the camp Pithiviers et Beaune-la-Rolande , under French administration).
  • May 28th - Ordinance of the military commander of Paris that Jews in the occupied zone are no longer allowed to dispose of their cash assets without the consent of the French Service du Controle .
  • June 2nd - Second Jewish statute : it tightens the definition of the term Jew and extends the professional bans of the first statute, a numerus clausus for all universities (maximum 3%, study restriction) and freelancers (2%). In the unoccupied south, all “Jews” have to register as such.
  • July 21st - " Aryanization " of the companies in the unoccupied zone.
  • August - In the occupied zone: 3200 foreign and 1000 French Jews are interned in various assembly camps, including Drancy .
  • December - In the occupied zone: 740 “Jewish” French (intellectuals, freelancers) are interned in Compiègne ( Le camp de Royallieu ) for this reason.

1942

  • January 20 - At the Wannsee Conference , chaired by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, high-ranking functionaries of the Nazi regime and the NSDAP come together to initiate the “ final solution to the Jewish question ”.
  • March 27th - The first train with Jewish deportees (1112 people) starts in Compiègne, of which only 19 survived until 1945.
  • May 20, 1942 - In the occupied zone: Wearing a Jewish star will be compulsory from June 7th.
  • June 5th - The second train to Auschwitz starts in Compiègne. Out of 1,000 deportees, 32 survived until 1945.
  • July 2nd - Agreement Bousquet - Oberg on cooperation between the French and German police, in the presence of Heydrich (possibly under his pressure).
  • June 22nd: Train No. 3 leaves the Drancy camp for Auschwitz: 1,000 deportees, 24 of whom survived until 1945.
  • June 25: Train No. 4 runs from Pithiviers camp to Auschwitz: 1,000 deportees, 24 of whom survived until 1945.
  • June 28th - Train No. 5 leaves the Beaune-la-Rolande camp for Auschwitz. Of the 1004 deportees, only 35 survived until 1945.
  • 16./17. July 1942 - The French police arrested 9,000 men, 20,000 predominantly foreign Jews in Paris (" grande rafle ") and locked 12,884 "homeless Jews" in the Vélodrome d'Hiver (3,031 men, 5,802 women and 4,051 children).
  • July 17 - Train No. 6 leaves the Pithiviers camp for Auschwitz: 928 deportees, 18 of whom survived until 1945.
  • July 19 - Train No. 7 travels with 1000 people from Le-Bourget-Drancy to Auschwitz, where it arrives on July 21. This is the first train from France in which the occupants are selected on the ramp and 375 victims are gassed immediately afterwards.
  • August 3 - Train No. 14 travels from Pithiviers camp to Auschwitz: 1,034 deportees, 4 of whom survived until 1945.
  • August 26-28, 1942 - In the unoccupied zone: raids lead to the deportation of 6,584 foreign or stateless Jews.
  • November 11th - Train no.45 travels from the Drancy camp to Auschwitz: 745 deportees, 2 of whom survived until 1945.
  • November 11th - The Wehrmacht occupies ( Operation Anton ) the Free Zone of France in response to the Allied invasion of North Africa . Except for the Italian zone, all of France is now in the hands of the Germans.

1943

  • January: In an action called Rafle de Marseille (raid by M.), 27,000 Marseilles are forcibly resettled in the old port district , arrested and deported in 1640, some to extermination camps, in a collaboration between the French police, Gestapo and SD under Rolf Mühler and Günter Hellwing , later SPD party executive and MdL in NRW , as well as the Wehrmacht . The Germans blow up the neighborhood.
  • February 9th - Train No. 45 runs from the Drancy camp to Auschwitz: out of 1,000 deportees, only 21 survived until 1945
  • September 8th - After the Italian surrender , Nice is occupied, where there are raids.
  • April - Raids in Nîmes and Avignon
  • September - raids in Nice and its hinterland
  • December 17 - Train no. 64 travels from the Drancy camp to Auschwitz: of 1,000 deportees, only 42 survived until 1945.

1944

  • April 13 - Train No. 71 leaves the Drancy camp for Auschwitz. Of the 1,500 deportees, only 105 survived until 1945.
  • On June 6th, the western allies land in Normandy ( Operation Overlord ).
  • August 11th - the 78th transport leaves Lyon for Auschwitz: 1,200 deportees, 157 of whom survived until 1945.
  • August 15 - With the landing in Provence, a second invasion began in southern France on the Côte d'Azur between Toulon and Cannes ( Operation Dragoon ). The French and Americans were able to advance swiftly into the interior of the country without decisive resistance.
  • August 16 - The Allies reach Pisa (Italy) from the south .
  • August 17th - Patton is in Dreux
  • August 20 - Pétain is brought to Belfort , later Sigmaringen , by the German military .
  • August 25th - start of the Battle of Paris
  • August 29th - French and American troops celebrate in Paris .
  • September 3 - Brussels liberated.
  • September 4th - Antwerp liberated.

Deportations

In December 1941, the military commander Otto von Stülpnagel proposed the deportation of "communists, Jews and people close to the perpetrators"; the execution of hostages after assassinations is not enough of a deterrent measure of retaliation. There is hardly any space in the camps for the 12,200 “people who appeared by the state police” who have been arrested in three raids. As a result, able-bodied Jews between the ages of 18 and 55 were brought together for deportation in the “Jewish camp” of the Compiègne police detention center; other Jews who were declared “unable to work” and older Jews were relocated to Drancy.

The first six deportation trains, with which mainly able-bodied Jewish men were abducted for forced labor, were referred to as “atonement measures”. The first train with a third-class passenger car, baggage car and a second-class car for an escort unit left Le Bourget Drancy station on March 27, 1942. After a journey of around 72 hours, the 1112 prisoners arrived in Auschwitz and were put to work there. Only 23 of them survived the end of the war.

The following five trains probably had converted freight cars with 35 seats and a toilet, as they were used for the transport of Russian civil workers (“coupé wagons”). After the sixth transport on July 17, 1942, the “policy of repression” turned into deportations for extermination.

Almost at the same time as the transports from Belgium and the Netherlands, mass deportations began in France in mid-July 1942, which now also included women and people unable to work. The German deportation plans were welcomed by the Vichy government in the summer. Protests by the Catholic Church and the negative attitude of the population caused the regime to give up support as early as September 1942. Nevertheless, the deportations from France continued. From the first of these trains, which departed on July 19, 1942, some of the deportees in Auschwitz were selected for the first time and immediately murdered. Initially, Jews of French nationality were spared. Stateless Jews, whose children brought French citizenship with them by birth, were separated from their children in the camp and deported. From August 14, 1942, children were also deported; these were selected and murdered immediately after their arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau .

The deportations ended on August 22, 1944. About 76,000 Jews were deported within two and a half years; around 32,000 of them between July 19 and September 30, 1942.

numbers

There were 75,721 deportees from France, including:

42,655 in 1942
17,041 in 1943
16,025 in 1944

Age groups:

  7.9 percent of them were not yet 12 years old
17.3 percent of them between 13 and 29 years
63.3 percent of them 30 to 60 years
11.5 percent of them were over 60 years old.

According to French estimates, around a third of the deportees were French.

Of the foreigners among those deported from France:

26,300 from Poland
  7,000 from Germany
  4,500 from Russia
  3,300 from Romania
  2,500 from Austria

Only 2500 (3.3 percent) of those displaced survived the end of the war. The Jewish victims also include around 1,000 people of Jewish faith who were executed or shot as hostages in France. In addition, 3,000 deaths are to be taken into account, who have already died in the French assembly and transit camps.

Movie

A 2017 documentary by Ruth Zylberman reconstructs the fate of many Jewish residents in one of the large residential complexes with 300 residents in the center of Paris: No. 209 “The children from Rue Saint-Maur” . She finds only a few survivors of the raid on July 16, 1942, a Nazi campaign supported by the collaboration in the middle of the Shoah, and lets them tell us today about her memories of her parents and the days of that time. (Original French / English Les Enfants du 209, rue Saint-Maur, Paris . 2017, 101 min.)

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ House of the Wannsee Conference , pp. 1–9 (PDF).
  2. ^ Claudia Steur: Theodor Dannecker. A functionary of the "Final Solution" . Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88474-545-X , p. 45.
  3. ↑ for a further chronology see bundesarchiv.de
  4. ↑ From the camps of "la Combe aux Loups" in Ruelle-sur-Touvre and that of the "Alliers" in Angoulême. After: Bartolomé Bennassar, La Guerre d'Espagne et ses lendemains , Perrin, coll. Temps. (Their wives and children under the age of 13 are extradited to Franco Spain.)
  5. ↑ see also French Wikipedia , z. B. Web links
  6. ^ Raul Hilbert: The Destruction of European Jews , Fischerverlag 1982, ISBN 3-596-24417-X , p. 649ff.
  7. ↑ Report de la préfecture de police on May 14, 1941. Archives, pages 29-30. Cité par Serge Klarsfeld in Vichy-Auschwitz , vol. I, p. 15.
  8. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of the events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939-1945 . Reinbek near Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-498-00884-6 , p. 253.
  9. ↑ see en: Italian occupation of France during World War II and fr: Zone d'occupation italienne en France
  10. ↑ Ahlrich Meyer: perpetrators in interrogation. The “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” in France 1940-1944 . Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-17564-6 , pp. 96/97.
  11. ↑ Ahlrich Meyer: perpetrators in interrogation ... p. 102/103.
  12. ↑ Ahlrich Meyer: perpetrators under interrogation ... p. 111.
  13. ↑ Ahlrich Meyer: perpetrators under interrogation ... p. 101.
  14. ↑ a b House of the Wannsee Conference : House of the Wannsee Conference: Deportation in France ( Memento from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed March 26, 2008)
  15. ↑ Ahlrich Meyer: perpetrators under interrogation ... pp. 119 and 161.