Jews in unoccupied France who are working on farms are classified as “elements needed for French agriculture” and as such are exempt from deportation to Nazi-held territories it was disclosed today over the Vichy radio by Darquier de Pellepoix, French commissioner for Jewish Affairs.
The anti-Semitic French official in a bitter anti-Jewish broadcast denounced allowing Jews to work on the land.” The Jewish rush to farm work,” he said, ” is not due to the fact that Jews love to work on the land, but because they seek to evade the existing laws. The smallest farms and the poorest peasants are being besieged with Jews asking employment, since it is necessary for Jews to prove that they are actually employed on the land.”
Urging a cheek-up on all Jews who are exempt from deportation as farm laborers, the Vichy commissar for Jewish Affairs alleged in his address that “Jews promise to pay peasants as much as 1,000 francs monthly for a certificate stating that they are regularly employed by the peasants as agricultural workers.” After securing such certificates, the Jews ” are happy because they have evaded the existing regulations, ” Pellepoix asserted.
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