The Reuter news agency today reported from Paris that about 40,000 owners of small businesses – mainly furniture, furs, textiles, clothing and Jewelry – have formed a “protective association” to oppose any French government order for the return to Jewish owners of enterprises which were sold to non-Jewish Frenchmen during the German occupation.
“There already have been disturbances where Jewish citizens have tried to retake possession of their pre-war business premises,” the Reuter report stated. “The government faces a delicate problem since undoubtedly some of the new owners are war widows, refugees from Alsace, or people who have been bombed-out in other French areas.”
The solution proposed by the association is to treat Jews who lost their businesses as a result of Vichy anti-Semitic laws as if they had been bombed out. This would entitle them to government compensation.
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.
