Declaring that sterner measures are in store for the Jews in France, but not revealing any details, the Nazi-controlled Paris radio today announced that “the Jewish problem in France is approaching a new climax.”
“The Vichy Government is determined to continue its anti-Jewish policy,” the Paris broadcast stated. “A powerful campaign to enlighten the French people on the Jewish question will soon be started be the Vichy authorities.”
An official of the American Friends Service Committee who arrived here today from Vichy after personally interviewing Laval on the deportation of the Jews from France declared that Laval made the following statement to him: “We want to get rid of the Jews. We did not ask them to come here. I know that the deportations make a bad impression, but who cares and who is going to do anything about it? All the United States is likely to do is to protest, but what of it? I take full responsibility. The deportations only coincided with Germany’s wish, we also wanted them.”
NAZIS MAY REPLACE LAVAL WITH DORIOT
The Basler National Zeitung, a Swiss newspaper, reports today from Vichy that Laval’s anti-Jewish measures, which provoked so much resentment among the French people, have failed to improve his position with Nazi Germany. It is possible that he may soon be ousted through pressure from Berlin and that the notorious anti-Semite Doriot, who is more acceptable to the Nazis, will be appointed Chief of the French Government in Vichy.
The Courier de Geneve, another Swiss newspaper, today publishes the text of a joint appeal addressed by cardinals and archbishops in Nazi-occupied France to Marshal Petain, reading as follows: “Deeply moved by the mass arrests and maltreatment of Jews, we cannot stifle the cry of our conscience. In the name of humanity and Christian principles our voice is raised in favor of imprescriptible rights of human nature. Our appeal is also an anguished plea for pity for the immense suffering, especially of mothers and children. We beg you to respect the demands of justice and the rights of charity.”
The same newspaper also reports that the number of suicides among Jews in Nazi-occupied France is mounting. “Whole families are perishing in collective suicides resulting from the anti-Jewish persecutions,” the paper writes. Other Swiss newspapers report that French fishermen are helping Jews escape from France by smuggling them on fishing boats from Evian to Lausanne, Switzerland. A number of Jews, captured by the Swiss police, are now held in Lausanne prison. Last night Swiss gendarmes fired on a fishing boat near Lausanne and killed the French fisherman who attempted to land four Jews on the Swiss side of the lake. Early this morning a Jew was killed under similar circumstances when he tried to land from a fishing boat on the Swiss shores near Lausanne.
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.
