France’s newly appointed prime minister, Edith Cresson, told the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations Sunday it has a “precious and essential” role in a permanent dialogue between the Jewish community and the French government.
Cresson was the guest at the annual dinner of CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France. In her talk, she described as unbearable and intolerable anti-Semitic acts and “the allegations of those denying the existence of the (Nazi) gas chambers.”
She paid homage to Jews for their role in the French resistance against the Nazis and noted that this year commemorations are being held on the 50th anniversary of the first roundups of Jews in France.
“Thousands of Jews were jailed in the ‘Camps of Shame’ of Pithiviers, Beaune la Rolande, Drancy and Compiegne,” she said, recalling the camps, which were all situated near Paris.
“While responsibility for the deportation and their annihilation rests with the Nazis, let us not shy away from the fact that the German occupiers found assistance and complicity within the French police and administration of the Vichy government,” she said.
She referred to current efforts to bring wartime collaborators to justice, which “have been submitted to the courts. Let them do their work,” she said.
Some observers believe this meant the prime minister would not seek to hasten trial proceedings against Rene Bousquet, the 81-year-old former prominent banker and corporate leader who is to stand trial for crimes against humanity for his role while head of the Vichy police during World War II.
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