The situation of the Jews in France, both in the occupied and unoccupied parts, who now number 340,000 is described by the Institute of Jewish Affairs in the first comprehensive report since the surrender of France, published here today.
The report points out that there are differences in degree only but not in essence in the suffering of the Jews in the so-called free and occupied zones. The Jewish population in each of the zones is about 170,000. Jews who have lived in France since the third century are today subjected to exactly the same kind of oppression as Nazi Germany has initiated against the native German Jewish population.
The only bright spot in the black picture, says the report, is the attitude of the French masses, “With the exception of a few directly interested parties, the overwhelming majority of the French people has accepted anti-Jewish legislation as a further proof of the country’s degradation.”
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