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France Sends Jews to Spain and Nazi-held Poland for Forced Labor

April 17, 1942
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Acting upon Hitler’s request, the French Government in Vichy is transporting Jews from its concentration camps to Spain and Nazi-held Poland for forced labor there, according to reliable reports reaching here today.

The reports estimate that approximately 6,000 Jews have so far been transported from various camps to Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, while several hundred were sent to Spain to work in labor battalions there replacing Spaniards who were despatched to fight side by side with the Nazis on the Russian front. All the Jews transported for labor to Spain come from Camp de Gurs.

Among the Jews sent to Poland are many who have acquired French citizenship. They are now being denaturalized on the basis that they are foreign-born. Especially selected for deportation to the East are Jewish internees who are skilled workers, particularly mechanics, tailors, shoemakers and others whom the Nazis consider useful to their war effort.

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