French deproting their own Jews

motherfunker

I read a very distressing chapter in a book the other day about the French policy for deproting Jews from France to Auschwitz. I had heard briefly about this but assumed it was done by the nazis themselves. I was shocked to hear that the French, although admittedly they dident have too much choice, volunteered to do the rounding up themselves. At first they said they wouldent but then Himmler said Hitler wouldent be happy about that so they said they would round up only foreign jews, not french ones. Innitially it was only meant to be jews of working age and capability who were to be deported but in a strange gesture, the french pm of the vichy government said he would also round up the children and deport them aswell. That is where the story gets harrowing, I almost had to get out of bed and go out and smoke a fag while reading it, and I dont even smoke. I had to finish the chapter that night becuase I dident want to have to pick it up again the next night and go through that again. The way the french treated the children was nothing short of what the nazis would have done, it is a chapter of french history that will always bring shame on them.

Mahatma coat

Ah now, in their defence, I know an aulfella over here who was in Holland during the Nazi Occupation, he recounts stories of his brothers and Uncles etc assisting the NAzis to round people up too, there were some very good reasons for it

1 if you didnt 'assist' you were an enemy of the state and you went in the truck too

2 it was generaly felt that the Dutch locals would show 'some' compassion

3 they really werent aware of the full horrors of the Camps

motherfunker

Yeah, I know the full story of the camps wasent known at that stage, but they did know they were not sending them anywhere good. There were stories about mothers telling their oldest kids (10 & 11 year olds)to run off down side streets to escape so they must have had some idea of what might happen in the near future. But it was the way in which the children were treated by the gendarmes and some of the french locals that shocked me. After a few weeks of being holed up in a local stadium (i think) with their parents there to look after them, the parents were suddenly taken away to be sent on a seperate transport. The kids, some of which were toddlers, were left to fend for themselves in the camp with the help of just a few locals who could do nothing to help the majority of the kids due to the sheer number of them. There were meagre rations which were basically thrown out to them with no order or care taken to ensure everyone got something to eat with the result that many kids were unable to fend for themselves and ended up on the brink of starvation, there was no sanitation system so they all ended up sleeping in their own and everyone elses excretement, riddled with dissentry and all sorts of other nasty ailments. Kids who had previously known nothing but the love and affection of their mothers were now left alone, with thousands of other scared kids, basically living in hell, while outside the stadium the french enjoyed a semblance of normal life. As the emaciated, **** covered children were walked through the town to the train station towards their eventual death, the french locals looked at them as if they were animals and turned their heads and noses away from them.
As a father this story really hit me hard, I know kids suffered from everywhere suffered during the war, but such suffering at the hands of civilians was not that common I dont think.
The worst part is the fact that the kids were given up voluntarially, it was not part of the initial order, it would have just been a finincial burden on the french to support these kids when their working parents had been exterminated.

marcsignal

It's a bit of a controversial subject alright, but France had a rep for Anti Semetism before that with the Dreyfuss affair etc. In fact Northern Europe generally was pretty Anti Semetic in the 18 & 1900s

Here's an interesting article in Time Magazine, about the subject of France and its role in the deportation of its Jews.

bushy...

motherfunker wrote: »

That is where the story gets harrowing, I almost had to get out of bed and go out and smoke a fag while reading it, and I dont even smoke. I had to finish the chapter that night becuase I dident want to have to pick it up again the next night and go through that again.

I'd imagine it'd be better for you if there was someone with you at the time you could chat with if reading it has that sort of effect on you.

meathstevie

Nothing new in that story. Nearly every European country or part of it's population that was occupied by the Nazi's participated to an extent in their activities, including the holocaust.