Baron Guy de Rothschild, banker and leader of the French Jewish community, yesterday blamed the Catholic Church in France for the disappearance of the Finaly children from the country and compared it with the Dreyfus case. The children are reported to be in Spain.
Baron de Rothschild insisted that the Jewish community would never accept the “forced conversion” of the children, who were left in a municipal institution in 1944 by their parents just before the parents were murdered by the Nazis. He said the Jewish community backed the negotiations undertaken by Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan with Church leaders. He also called conversion of the children, in the midst of a legal battle for their recovery by an aunt living in Israel,” one of the worst abuses of confidence vis-a-vis their unfortunate parents.”
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.
