The appointment today of Marcel Peyrouton to the post of Governor General of Algeria has provoked great misgivings among Jews here who claim that he tolerated anti-Jewish propaganda when he was Secretary General of the Government General in Algeria in 1930. Peyrouton was subsequently dismissed by Leon Blum for his fascist tendencies.
Jewish refugees from France who witnessed Peyrouton’s activities as Minister of Interior in the Vichy government of Marshal Petain doubt whether the Jews of Algeria will have their rights fully restored under Peyrouton’s administration. They point to the fact that Peyrouton has always favored the Arabs in North Africa, over the Jews there, and predict that he will utilize his powers to keep the anti-Jewish regulations in Algeria in effect on the pretext that their abolition may cause Arab disturbances.
The attitude of Peyrouton on the release of political refugees interned by the Vichy regime is also questioned here, not only because he was one of the members of the Vichy cabinet responsible for the internment of refugees, but also because it was on his orders that all the leaders of the French Republic, including Leon Blum, Reynaud, Mandel, Daladier and Gen. Gamelin, were arrested.
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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.
