A right-wing and self-avowed anti-Semitic organization today claimed responsibility for the Paris drug store attack last Sunday which caused the death of two people and seriously wounded 26 more. The organization, which calls itself “Group for Europe’s Defense,” said it had decided to take active action to protest against “lying Jewish propaganda” and other forms of “brain-washing.”
In a communique sent to the French news agency (AFP), the right-wing underground organization said, “We are tired of all the brain-washing put out by the information media on (anti-Nazi) resistance, concentration camps, German war criminals, fascists, etc. The Group for Europe’s Defense has decided to take active action.”
The communique continued: “Enough of lying Jewish propaganda. Step the resistance and Zionist control of the press. Reestablish the truth concerning Dresden and Hiroshima and (the post-war) purges. Free Rudolph Hess. All the truth about Jewish plutocracy will be made known. Our fight continues.”
JEWISH OWNER DENOUNCED
The communique also denounced the drug store owner, Marcel Blaustein-Blanchet, for “poisoning public opinion.” Blaustein-Blanchet, a Jew, is also president of one of France’s largest advertising agencies, “Publicis.” Another of Blaustein-Blanchet’s drug stores burned down two years ago under mysterious circumstances. Police never found those responsible for the attack which practically gutted the eight-story building.
Police sources in Paris said that they had no previous knowledge of the group’s existence, and noted it could be one of a number of small extremist right-wing organizations known to exist in Western Europe. These sources added that the communique could also be a fake produced by a mentally deranged person.
The explosion last Sunday occurred inside the drug store situated at the heart of the busy “Saint Germain des Pres” Square on the Left Bank. Thousands of people walked along the sidewalk or were window-shopping when a young man was seen to throw a grenade from the drug store’s mezzanine. It exploded on the ground floor where most of the shops are situated. The assailant escaped in the confusion but numerous people were hurt by the blast. A witness described the scene as “horrible. Women and children ran screaming, blinded by the blood and dust. People trampled over the wounded and the dying.”
Among the two people killed by the blast was a Jew, 49-year-old David Greenberg. His widow said that they had taken their eldest daughter to “Saint Germain des Pres” for window-shopping to chose a winter coat for her in preparation for the new school year. The drug store is a combination of a cafe, restaurant, pharmacy, newspaper stand, luxury boutiques, book shop and cinema. It is across the street from several famous Paris cafes.
POLICE BLIND TO MOTIVE
At the time of the attack, police refused to see any possible indication as to the motive in the fact that the blast had been carried out practically on the eve of Rosh Hashana or in the fact that the shopping center belonged to a prominent member of the Jewish community. Paris chief of police, Jean Paolini, said at the time that “only a madman or a coward could have dropped an explosive device amid women and children.”
Last month, bombs were exploded near the central French Jewish welfare organization, Fonds Social Juife Unifie, and a number of papers. Police thought at the time that these attacks had been carried out by extreme left-wing organizations.
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.
