French Authorities Reinstate Jewish Government Officials Dismissed by Vichy

The French Government today published the text of a new law providing for the integration into public services of former officials who were ousted because they were Jews or members of so called secret societies.

The law specifies that the authorities will immediately proceed to review all dismissals and will order the reintegration without application of individuals concerned. It provides for the immediate reinstatement of officials to the highest posts they previously held, or the average grade reached by others of the same class. The reinstated officials will receive full pay from the date of their dismissal or retirement by Vichy.

The law covers virtually all categories of government employ, including local and departmental services as well as national. Where there are no posts open at present for these officials, the measure provides that they be assigned temporarily to other duties until a vacancy arises. Jewish sources here estimate that at least 2,500 Jews will be reinstated as a result of this law.

The Ministry of Prisoners, Deportees and Refugees has announced the establishment of a central register of all children of political or racial deportees who were placed, officially or clandestinely, in asylums or private homes to save them from the Germans.

The Ministry requested all persons having information concerning such children to inform the bureau. There were probably several hundred Jewish children placed in church or other orphanages, or in private homes by their parents who were subsequently deported, leaving no record of their identity or the location of the children.

Jewish organizations are finding it very difficult to locate and recover these children, some of whom do not even know their real names. In other cases records of children placed by volunteer underground workers were lost when the latter were captured by the Gestapo.