The freeing by French authorities of Xavier Vallat, pro-Nazi Commissioner of Jewish Affairs during the Nazi occupation of France, evoked a clash in the French National Assembly between Rene Mayer, Minister of Justice, and Jacques Duclos, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of France.
In justifying Vallat’s liberation, Mr. Mayer said: “I know what Xavier Vallat did better than anybody else since in 1941 I was the chairman of the Union of French Jews organized by the Vichy Government. As a Jew, and on behalf of my co-religionists, I could have had many excuses if I were to have taken a decision not to set Vallat free. However, a Minister of Justice must be able to prove that he does not confuse justice with revenge.”
The Communist deputy interrupted the Minister by shouting, “Justice of the House of Rothschild,” alluding to the directorship formerly held by M. Mayer in the Rothschild Bank in France. Replying to the Communist deputy, the Minister of Justice said that minutes of a previous debate in the Assenbly would show that Duclos had called him a “dirty tolerated alien.” This, the Jewish Minister said, proves that Duclos’ own party has been polluted by anti-Semitic propaganda.
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.
