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President of Central Jewish Organization in France Charged with Treason

October 21, 1943
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Raoul Lambert, the president of the Union General Juive de France, the central Jewish body which represents the Jewish population of both the German-administered and the French-administered parts of France, has been charged with treason, it was reliably learned here today. He was arrested together with his family several weeks ago in Marseilles and is now held in the notorious Drancy concentration camp near Paris.

The charge of treason was placed against him because of a protest which he lodged with the French authorities in Vichy against the inhuman treatment of the Jewish internees at the Drancy camp which is under the supervision of the Gestapo, Enraged by the fact that a Jewish leader “dared” to lodge a formal protest against the administration of the camp, the German authorities in Paris ordered Mr. Lambert’s arrest, describing his intervention with the French Government in Vichy as “an act of treason.”

The London radio announced today that French Jews in North Africa “will be given back the jobs which were taken away from them when the Vichy authorities were in power.” At the same time it was learned here today that the De-Gaulle Girand administration will soon announce a decision on the question of reinstatement of the Cremieux Decree, which would restore citizenship and all pre-war rights to the Jews of Algeria,

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