Frenchmen Boycott Vichy’s Anti-jewish Regulations, American Relief Worker Reports

Anti-Semitic regulations in unoccupied France are being nullified by a consciously forgetful public, Henry S. Harvey, representative of the American Friends Service Committee in Vichy, declared here today upon his return from unoccupied France where he was conducting relief work.

“One certain opportunity which every visitor gets to check the anti-Semitic adherence is in hotel admittance,” Mr. Harvey said. “While there is a prohibition on the acceptance of Jewish customers at hotels, only one – the Grand Hotel at Parpignan – of the 15 at which I stayed abided by the order. The procedure is to ask each desk registrant a direct question: ‘Are you Jewish?’ The typical hotel, such as the Capoul and do Paris at Toulouse and the Pieus at Albi, blithely omitted it. Numbers of Jews were found in the hotels living in defiance of Hitler with the assent of the proprietors.”

A second instance of this condition was encountered by Mr. Harvey in his contacts with the universities. The Nazi command is that no Jewish student is to be matriculated unless he has had five successive generations of French antecedents; what is more, these assistance must have contributed acceptably to what is vaguely defined as “the welfare of France.” Such qualifications, if enforced, would virtually have eliminated all Jewish students. The university authorities politely file the Nazi directions, Harvey said, and go right on admitting Jewish students.

OFFICIAL DISMISSED FOR FLOUTING ANTI-JEWISH LAWS

Very often, and this is becoming more true, the infractions of the anti-Semitic code are discovered, and those found guilty are dealt with harshly. Mr. Harvey particularly recalls an official in the Department of Tarn, whose name he withhold, who had told him frankly that he was doing all in his power to hamstring the anti-Semitic rules. By the time the Quaker representative left, the official had been deposed, and replaced with one more devoted to Nazi interests. Continuation of such a trend toward further infiltration of Nazi puppets may immeasurably tighten the screws on Jews in France, and ironically defeat the objective of the tolerant officials, he pointed out.

Not all regulations against the Jews are so unwieldy or so impolitic that violators can escape immediate Nazi crack-down, Mr. Harvey said. Professional quotas are rigidly applied. A two percent maximum has been placed on the number of Jewish lawyers, physicians and other professional men who may practice in any community. One Jew, eminent in his field, has been forced to do farm work, even though he is partly crippled.

Perhaps the most widespread discrimination against the Jews is the ban on their leaving work camps for detached service, the name given to jobs in private industry engaged in work of vital concern to the regime, the Quaker representative stated. The wives of interned Jews likewise are treated harshly and are told in which town they may live, and instructed to shift for themselves. For these couples life is increasingly dark; they are often stationed long distances apart, and there seems to be no escape from their confinement.

Most active in ignoring anti-Semitic edicts, are those interested in the Jews and those antagonistic to the Nazis. Most active in enforcing the restrictions, are Frenchmen who have political ambitions. The future of the Jews in what survives of France will brighten or blacken in proportion to the fortunes of the Vichy Regime, Mr. Harvey concluded.