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French opposition to Vichy decrees
A new book about France during World War II says that the forcing of French Jews to wear the Star of David by the collaborationist Vichy government outraged non-Jews and elicited compassion for the victims. The Star of the Jews, by Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, recalls how non-Jews risked imprisonment and deportation when they protested the measure. Some wore stars emblazoned with "goy" or "Aryan," which infuriated Vichy authorities. Many were arrested and deported. "For the first time since 1940, public opinion was against an anti-Jewish law," Klarsfeld said in an interview. "It was a strategic error on their part, for it was a psychological shock to the non-Jewish population." Compassion from the large majority of the French population helped saved three quarters of the Jews living in France, he said. During the war, about 76,000 Jews were deported from France, including 11,000 children under 12. Only 2,500 returned. "It never entered our minds not to wear the yellow star," recalled Georgette Ewenczyk, who was 15 at the time, "We never imagined it would lead to death in the gas chambers." Ewenczyk discovered - to her surprise - that her classmates were "extremely kind and respectful" of the star. "Jews had to ride in the last subway car, and all my non-Jewish friends rode with me. No one ever insulted me or made me feel bad about being Jewish," she said. Klarsfeld's book contains a poignant letter from a Jewish high-school pupil who paid with her life for not wearing the yellow star. Louise Jacobson, 18, was arrested September 1, 1942. French gendarmes were waiting for her when school let out. After ascertaining from neighbors that she often went out without the star, they took her away. "I'm going to tell you a sad story," she wrote to a classmate. "You cannot imagine how I would like to see you and be free, even if it meant dying of huner and cold...my life here is hell." Louise was deported and gassed at Auschwitz on February 13, 1943. (Associated Press) |
