A report published last week in several New York Jewish newspapers, that French police had raided Jewish neighborhoods in Paris and arested Jews who entered France after their liberation from Nazi concentration camps, because these Jews had entered the country illegally, was denied in a cable received today by the Jewish Labor Committee.
Upon publication of the report, the committee cabled to Leon Joubaux, general secretary of the French Trade Union Confederation, protesting the “inhuman attitude of the French police to these helpless erstwhile victimes of Nazi brutality,” and declaring that if France decides to deport those Jews on technicalities, it will be to the everlasting shame of Democratic France.”
Today, Mr. Jouhaux replied as follows: “The French Minister of the Interior stated categorically that the information of a French raid on Jewish quarters is absolutely false and no order was either given or executed against Jews who have recently returned from Germany. A decree of the Ministry of the Interior dated May 5th, 1945, does not permit any distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish repatriated people.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
