The Pittsburgh Press (June 14, 1941)
VICHY INVOKES DRASTIC LAWS AGAINST JEWS
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Nazi-like decree to cover colonies also; anti-French plot charged
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By Ralph Heinzen, United Press staff writer
Vichy, June 14 –
New laws were invoked today prescribing the same treatment for Jews in unoccupied France as in Germany and in German-occupied countries.
The laws were enacted because Xavier Vallat, Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs, said he had uncovered a vast Jewish plot to prevent collaboration between France and Germany.
The laws will be effective for both occupied and unoccupied France, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria and all other colonies. All Jews must register before July 15 under penalty of a year in prison and a fine. The laws parallel closely Germany’s Nuremberg Jewish laws.
Charges ‘Jewish plot’
Vallat said there were 140,000 Jews in the Paris area and that 6,000 of them were foreigners. He said 12,000 have already been sent to concentration camps. Thousands of Jews in unoccupied France have been assigned “a fixed residence” for their part in “anti-French maneuvers,” he said.
Vallat said:
There is a strong Jewish drive in progress which the national police have discovered. It is aimed at nothing less than defeat of Marshal Pétain’s recovery efforts and at preventing France from collaborating with Germany.
Vallat said a string Jewish colony in Vichy had been cooperating with the “anti-French plotters,” and that it had engaged in “black market” traffic to defeat the government’s price control laws.
Affects Jews in Africa
The French Jewish laws which formerly have been easier than those in any other European country will now be aligned with those generally established and eventually will be coordinated with the European statute which Adolf Hitler intends enforcing uniformly through the continent. Jews in all European countries will have the same rights and will get the same treatment.
The government is preparing supplementary decrees, Vallet said. Another statute for Jews living French North Africa will be published later.
Under the new laws, only 2% of the Jewish population may practice law and medicine and preference will be given veterans of French wars. Not more than 3% of the total enrollment at universities will be Jewish. Jews will be banned from certain professions which might permit them to influence public opinion such as radio, journalism and motion pictures. They will also be barred from banking, real estate, stock brokerage, pawn brokerage and gambling businesses.
Defines racial status
The new law defines a Jew as:
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Anyone, regardless of his present religion, who descends from three Jewish grandparents.
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Anyone descending from two Jewish grandparents who is married to a descendant of at least two Jewish grandparents.
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Anyone who belongs to a synagogue.
Exceptions will be made for families of Jewish officers and soldiers killed in wars and for veterans of French wars who have won the Legion of Honor award, the Croix de Guerre or a military medal for bravery in action, and for Jewish war widows and orphans.