Otto Abetz, Hitler’s ambassador to France during the Nazi occupation period, who is now on trial here for complicity in deporting 40,000 Jews from France to extermination camps in Poland, as well as for other war crimes which he committee against French citizen, defended himself today against the accusation that he ordered the pro-Nazi Vichy government to purge all Jews from government offices.
The accused Nazi diplomat claimed that the purging of Jews from official positions in France did not take place at his instigation but was voluntarily carried out by the Vichy regime. He argued that the purge was started by the Vichy government in October, 1940, without any instructions from Nazi occupation authorities.
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.
