Page 24 - Jewish News_May-June-2020

24 May/June 2020 JEWISH INTEREST

Hitler invades France How a seemingly ordinary individual

By Paul R. Bartrop, PhD can play an extraordinary role
n May 10, 1940, the German two countries. On June 16, Reynaud tending south to the Spanish border. In cupied zone to Vichy were forbidden
army invaded France. On the resigned as Prime Minister and was re- a clause that would hit Jewish refugees re-entry; Jewish businesses had to be Book review by Philip K. Jason, Special to The Jewish News
Omorning of May 15, French placed by the “Hero of Verdun,” Mar- especially hard, all Jews previously identified by clearly marked signs in
Prime Minister Paul Reynaud wired his shal Philippe Pétain, who informed the granted political asylum in France had French and German; all Jews were to be The Old Stories by David Selcer.
newly installed counterpart in London, people of France that the fighting must to be surrendered to the German au- compulsorily registered; and from this Biblio Publishing. 234 pages.
Winston Churchill, stop and that he had asked the Germans thorities. All occupation costs had to point on they were to carry an identity Trade paperback $12.95.
reporting that “Last for an armistice. On June 22, 1940, in be carried by the French themselves. A card with the word Juif stamped on it.
night we lost the the same railway carriage in the forest small French army of 100,000 men for Then, on October 3, 1940, the t’s hard to separate the strands of
battle. The route to of Compiègne in which the Armistice local policing was to be permitted, and French Statut des Juifs (Jewish Statute) memoir, history, biography and
Paris is open.” By was signed in 1918 signaling Germa- the French navy was to be disarmed. was introduced at Vichy, and set the Iimagination in David Selcer’s pro-
the end of May the ny’s defeat in the Great War, France The two-fifths of the country in the stage for what was to come. It defined vocative, informative and deeply mov-
bulk of the French surrendered. southeast of the area not occupied by Jews as those who had three Jewish ing book. Perhaps the genre doesn’t
armies had been sent The collapse of France had enor- the Germans was permitted to remain grandparents, or two Jewish grandpar- matter that much. It’s a feast of infor-
Dr. Paul Bartrop north to confront the mous consequences for Jewish com- as a quasi-independent French entity ents if their spouse was also Jewish. It mation and revelation, past and pres-
Germans, but most were encircled by munities throughout France. In 1939, under Pétain, with its capital in the also cut back Jewish involvement in ent, satisfaction and regret. th
the panzer armies of the Wehrmacht. the Jewish population was estimated resort town of Vichy. This so-called French society drastically: Jews would As the 19
As the French struggled to hold lines at somewhere between 300,000 and “free zone” took as its title L’État fran- be forbidden from serving in the mili- century came to a
that were hopelessly confused and 330,000. A year later, it had increased çais (French State), to distance itself tary as officers or noncommissioned close in the town
crumbling everywhere, worse was to by another 10%. Overall, perhaps from the hated République française officers, in senior positions in govern- of Kherson with-
come on June 10, when Italy declared 90,000 were French-born. With the (French Republic), which was hence- ment administration, or in any role in the Ukrainian
war and invaded southern France. Al- outbreak of war on September 3, forth dissolved. with an influence over public opinion. province of Great-
though this was to be the only theater 1939, Jews flocked to the colors, and Pétain’s goal was to completely One day later, on October 4, a second er Russia, a young
in which the French armies managed by January 1940, Jews in the French rejuvenate the country, based on the law granted local prefects the author- boy – not at all a
some degree of success, the Italians army numbered some 60,000, of whom concepts of Travail, Famille et Patrie ity to intern “foreigners of the Jewish scholar – toiled
capitalized on the French collapse at 16,000 were foreign-born. The defeat (Work, Family and Fatherland), core race.” with his lessons
the hands of the Germans by getting a was just as disastrous for the Jews of ideas that would inject new life into The catastrophic Fall of France in at the Great Cho-
seat at the peace table and subsequent- France as it was for everyone else, but a France that had been drained of its the summer of 1940 – 80 years ago this ral Synagogue. He hated his studies,
ly occupying the French Riviera. for the Jews it had the added signifi- élan vital. The new regime instituted month – saw the start of anti-Jewish but enjoyed paging through the stories
Immediately afterwards, between cance of being to an avowedly anti-Se- what became known as the National measures that would culminate in the of Sholem Aleichem, the great Jewish
June 15 and 25, the British Expedi- mitic enemy. The Nazi conquest would Revolution, a diametric opposite to deportation of more than 75,000 Jews storyteller whose Yiddish tales offered
tionary Force was evacuated from initiate a period of unprecedented per- the perceived ruin caused by the Third to death camps, where some 72,500 humor and profundity. At nine, Chaim
the beaches of Dunkirk, along with secution for Jews living in France. Republic. It was characterized by such were murdered. The vast majority of Zelitzer could not absorb the great
tens of thousands of French soldiers. When the armistice went into ef- features as anti-parliamentarism, a re- these were identified by French civil teachings of the Torah and the Tal-
Churchill, in a last-ditch effort to retain fect on July 25, France agreed to the jection of the notion of separation of servants, rounded up by French police, mud. He had a practical turn of mind.
some semblance of unity between the occupation by Germany of three-fifths powers, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and “processed” before their deporta- At a young age, he was happy enough
British and French allies, proposed a of the country north and west of a line the promotion of traditional values, a tion by other French authorities fol- to please his father and uncle by be-
stillborn case for a federal union of the running from Geneva to Tours and ex- rejection of modernity and, above all, lowing the Statut des Juifs. Although coming a skilled metal worker. But
a personality cult focusing on Pétain this is now a well-known story, it is he stumbled through his Bar Mitzvah
DIANE LAWSON, CCIM himself. Imbued with such ideals, it necessary to recount it once more. It is preparation.
Chaim did honor the traditional
a record which will forever be a stain
was clear that there could be no place
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE SERVICES for a Jewish presence in the new France on French history, and must be remem- goal of the Tzadik – of becoming a
righteous man.
bered.
and, even less, for immigrant Jews.
 Part of only 6% of brokers who Anti-Jewish regulations were pro- Dr. Paul Bartrop is Professor of His- His older brother, Shmuel, was on
have earned their CCIM mulgated by the Germans in the oc- tory and the Director of the Center for his way to becoming a famous cantor.
Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Jap-
designation cupied zone on September 27, 1940. Holocaust and Genocide Research at anese War (1905) prompted the teen-
It imposed a number of restrictions on
Florida Gulf Coast University. He can
Jews: those who moved from the oc- be reached at pbartrop@fgcu.edu. age sailor (Chaim) to “go AWOL” to
 30+ years of experience in
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