Zur aktuellen Debatte um die Einführung einer antisemitischen Rassengesetzgebung in Frankreich 1940

What is it about?

The persecution of the Jews in France is the subject of a current debate. It concerns the introduction of antisemitic laws by the French Vichy government in the summer and autumn of 1940. Ultimately it is about the question whether a continuity of antisemitism existed in France before and after 1940. Recently some have re-emphasised that the start of a French antisemitic policy in 1940 only occurred as a reaction to the anti-Jewish deeds of the German occupying forces in France. According to this view, there were hardly any continuities, and after 1940 antisemitism was mostly imported from Germany. Michael Mayer proves that this was not the case. Rather, one can observe two parallel lines of development: On the one hand the French government implemented its own policy of persecuting the Jews in France fairly independently of German antisemitic actions. On the other hand German measures regarding the expropriation of Jewish property led to successful defensive actions by the French administration. Vichy thus largely acted autonomously in introducing antisemitic segregational legislation, while it mostly reacted to German measures in the context of the “Aryanisation” of Jewish property. This reveals both the continuities as well as the ruptures in French antisemitism.

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