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France Indicts Vichy Aide For Deportation of Jews
International Herald Tribune March 13, 1979 PARIS, March 12 (AP) — Jean Leguay, a police official during the Nazi occupation of Vichy France, was indicted today for crimes against humanity for his alleged role in sending about 12,800 Jews to concentration camps. Mr. Leguay, 70, a resident of Paris, was released from custody following his indictment by Mar-tine Anzani. a Paris magistrate. The case was brought by lawyer Serge Klarsfeld. head of an organization to bring French war criminals to justice. The plaintiffs in the case arc six French Jews who lost relatives in Nazi concentration camps. Mr. Leguay, who became chief of police under the Vichy government, at the time was deputy chief of police in France's occupied zone from May, 1942, to January, 1944. On July 16 and 17, 1942, French police detained 12,884 Jews, including 4,051 children, from the Paris area and gathered them in the Velodrome d'Hiver, a stadium for bicycling, for deportation. Mr. Leguay is accused of organizing with the Germans the so-called Velodrome roundup, which became one of the most infamous incidents of French collaboration during the Nazi occupation. Mr. Leguay's attorney, Yves Jaffre, read a statement from his client noting that the alleged crime took place 37 years ago and insisting on his innocence. "Having had no concern from 1940 to 1944 other than protecting the French from their occupants, I am aware of having succeeded in that, given the limited measure of means at our disposal," the statement said. "I don't doubt in any respect my being able to account for my action." Louis Darquier de Pellepoix. commissioner for Jewish affairs in the Vichy government, had recommended that the Jewish children be sent to special centers in the Paris area. But documents submitted in the case claimed that Mr. Leguay asked the Germans to deport them with their parents. Darquier, who was sentenced to death in absentia after the war and is living in self-exile in Spain, stirred a major controversy in France last year when he said in an interview that only lice were gassed at Auschwitz. |
