The newspaper La France Libre reported today that Jean Zay, Jewish Minister of Education in Leon Blum’s Cabinet, was slain by the Vichy militia in the same way they put to death Georges Mandel, Colonial Minister in the Elum Cabinet.
Zay, who had been condemned to prison for life by Vichy on charges of “desertion,” was taken from his call by the militia and put in an automobile. In the car sat another “prisoner” who had been planted there by the militia, This man suggested to Zay that they “escape.” Zay, unsuspecting, had hardly moved out of the car when he was mowed down by the militia guards.
The newspaper called on the Minister of Justice in the French Provisional Government to investigate the assassinations which they said were carried out by Dornand’s militia because “they were Jews and anti-German.” Mandal was killed on July 14 last, according to a Vichy announcement which said he had been shot while being transferred by automobile from one prison to another.
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