Xavier Vallat, Vichy’s Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, who is now touring the French North-African colonies for the purpose of introducing the anti-Jewish measures which the Petain Government has proclaimed, arrived here today.
Losing no time, Vallat, accompanied by members of the French Legion of War Veterans, visited the Jewish ghetto section of the city known as Mellah, and addressed Jewish notables on the purpose of his visit. “I have come to visit you in your traditional surroundings and I congratulate you for having kept yourself in these surroundings,” he said. “I came here to study measures which will be taken not for the purpose of persecuting you, but for the purpose of eliminating Jews from certain sections of economic life. Especially those Jews whose activities had invaded the political life of the country.”
Vallat then assured the Jewish notables that the measures which he will take against the Jews “will be human.” The Jews, he said, will be able to preserve their cultural and spiritual traditions. Replying to Vallat’s assurances, the president of the Jewish notables expressed confidence in the French people and in the Sultan of Morocco, and emphasized that the Jews in Morocco were never mixed up with French politics.
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.
