Laval Exceeds Own Policy on Deportation of Jews from France, Survey Shows

The Laval Government is going beyond the stipulations of its own decrees in carrying out its policy of deporting the Jews, the Swiss newspaper Basler National Zeitung asserts today in an article analyzing the French deportation policy.

According to French official documents, the article states, the following principles have been laid down for the deportation of Jews: German, Austrian, Czechoslovak, Polish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Danzig and Soviet nationals, as well as stateless persons and White Russians, are to be deported. Without any consideration of their personal situation, all Jews who arrived in France after January 1, 1936, are to be deported with the exception of persons over 60, sick people who cannot be transported, obviously pregnant woman, parents of children under two, persons married to a French national or having a child with French nationality, persons who figure on a special political delivery list, and persons who have particularly distinguished themselves in the French Army. As regards the last category exempted, an order dated August 29 states that only those are to be spared who won the Medaille Militaire or the Legion of Honor at the front.

Further, on August 28, prefects were instructed that they could take persons up to 62 years in order to fulfill the obligatory quotas. All persons, without exception, originating from Holland, Belgium or Luxembourg, who secretly left occupied territory, are to be handed over. Also, persons are to be deported who, although arriving in France after 1933, have been placed in forced residence or secretly left the occupied zone; all internees; all who are the object of prosecution; all unmarried persons between 16 and 40, and all foreign workers and their families registered in France since 1933.

STIPULATIONS CONCERNING FATE OF FAMILIES OF DEPORTEES

The following stipulations were laid down as regards the fate of the families of deportees. Persons over 60 years whose relatives have been deported may either accompany them or remain in France. Very sick people may remain, but their relatives will be deported. Husbands of pregnant women and their children under 16 may also remain; if the husband is French, the whole family may remain. If a person figures in the political delivery list, the whole family is deported. Families of soldiers documented at the front may remain.

In many cases, however, the above regulations were exceeded. Swiss Protestant circles learned that non-Jewish Protestants had occasionally been taken in order to fill up the deportation quotas, and there were many cases of parents with small children, etc., especially foreigners, who, if they were fortunate enough to escape deportation at the last moment, were placed under forced residence, Exit permits are no longer granted to Jews. Originally, many refugees were hidden by families and in monasteries, but this is growing more difficult owing to searches and food difficulties. Anybody who shelters foreigners sought by the authorities is punished by imprisonment up to five years.