It has been eight decades since the Vel d’Hiv roundup of Jewish families in France (July 16-17, 1942), when approximately 13,000 Jews were forced from their homes before being sent to concentration camps throughout Europe. At the time, it was the largest mass detention of Jewish people by French police in collaboration with the Nazi German occupiers. Ultimately, more than 72,000 French Jews perished in the Holocaust.
In commemoration of Vel d’Hiv roundup, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at the inauguration of a memorial in the central town of Pithiviers, about 60 miles south of Paris. (Pithiviers was the second largest transit camp and deportation point in France for Jews.) Macron warned against resurgent antisemitism and historical revisionism.
— The Jerusalem Post
Quote: “We have not finished with antisemitism, it is still there — stronger and more rampant,” said Macron, citing examples of antisemitism in acts of terrorism, in graffiti on walls, on social media and as something that crops up in debates on some TV channels.
— The Jerusalem Post
Learn more about the Holocaust in France from Wikipedia. ►
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Photo: Asharq AL-awsat
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