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Jewish Youth in Unoccupied France Faced with Starvation or Working for Nazis

March 29, 1942
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Jewish youths in unoccupied France find themselves faced with the tragic dilemma of starving or working in armament factories which supply the Nazis’ war machine, according to information reaching Free French circles here today.

While the Jews in the Nazi-occupied section of France have been set to compulsory labor under the same conditions prevailing for Jews in Germany, those in the unoccupied zone have not been officially forced to work in factories. Constant tightening up of the anti-Jewish restrictions by Vichy, however, is gradually depriving these youths of all opportunities to earn a livelihood, except by joining the training centers which have been established by the Vichy authorities to supply labor for factories working on German war orders.

Apparently the chief reason for the recently increased Nazi pressure on Vichy for more rigid application of the anti-Jewish decrees is the desire to secure Jewish manpower in unoccupied France for use by the Germans, the Free French circles declared.

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