The shame and sorrow felt by the French clergy at the anti-Jewish measures taken by Marshal Petain’s “Christian regime” are reflected in an episode reported in the underground French paper Valmy, the editor of which, Paul Simon, reached London this week.
Simon brought with him one issue which reports how a young French girl approached a high dignitary of the Church and asked for a donation to aid a distressed woman. Offering fifty francs the priest asked: “Is this woman’s condition very deplorable, my child?”
“Yes, father,” the girl answered. “She is seventy and she is a Jewess.” Upon hearing this reply, the church leader handed the girl a hundred francs, and said: “I thank you for still having faith in Christian charity.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
