Reports reaching here today from Vichy state that the French Government has been asked by the Nazi authorities to introduce yellow badges for Jews in unoccupied France along the same linacs as has been done in the occupied part of France.
This is the second time that the Nazis have requested the Vichy Government to “coordinate” the anti-Jewish regulations of the occupied and unoccupied parts of France so that Jews should be recognized on the street, thus facilitating their arrest and deportation. Marshall Petain, it is reported, is definitely determined to reject the request of the Nazis for the introduction of yellow badges as he did when the Nazis demanded it several months ago, after they introduced the yellow Mogen David in occupied France.
Distrusting oven Darquier de Pellepoix, the notorious French anti-Semite who is now the head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in Vichy, the Nazis have appointed Admiral Rene Platon as their representative in charge of Jewish questions, one of the reports reveals. Admiral Platon has received from the Nazis a list of Jews marked for immediate arrest and is the person who is pressing the Vichy Government for further deportations of Jews.
“But the trust which the Nazis place in Admiral Platon with regard to Jewish matters is also very limited,” the report declares. “One incident is typical. Admiral Platon signed a reprieve for a French Jew who was covered with war decorations and honored for services to the republic, to give him time to settle his business. The German Gestapo annulled the reprieve.
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