France Apologizes to Jews (Yawn)

Did you hear the news earlier this week? France finally recognized its government’s responsibility for the deportation of French Jews during World War II. Between 1942 and 1944, the Vichy government collected and shipped off 75,721 French Jews to Nazi concentration camps, including about 11,000 young children. Fewer than 2,000 survived.

True, the deportation orders originated with the occupying German forces but, unlike other European countries that tried to protect its Jewish citizens (Denmark being the most courageous example), French officials willingly complied and hunted down its Jews with a vengeance. For years the French government has tried to distance itself from the wartime actions of the Vichy regime claiming that this entity had nothing to do with them. But survivors such as Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld didn’t buy the distinction. “For us, it was France. The uniforms were French. The Germans did not always ask the Vichy government to do what it did.” Former President Jacques Chirac started the ball rolling in 1995 when he became the first French leader to say that the country bore some responsibility for what happened.

I guess it’s always a good thing when governments acknowledge negative past actions even if many of the victims and their descendents see it as way too little, way too late. Remember last summer when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery? Or last April when the Senate passed another resolution that apologized to Native Americans for “the many instances of violence, maltreatment and neglect?” Those weren’t the first attempts in this country to expiate past sins. In 1993 the Senate passed a resolution apologizing for the “illegal overthrow” of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893. Does that mean we have to give it back? And in 1988, President Reagan signed an act apologizing to the 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were held in detention camps during the war.

Whatever makes you feel better, white boys. These moves always seem like such incredible understatements to me. To sum up the tortured relationship between Native Americans and the groups that nearly wiped them out as “instances of maltreatment and neglect” seems like a joke. To officially “apologize” to African Americans for slavery in the year 2008? Really? I always wonder if these mea culpas actually represent some kind of true soul-searching and healing or if they are simply cynical attempts by politicians to woo certain constituents and/or head off any claims for reparations. 

That seems to be the case in France, at least partly. The ruling this week was the result of a case brought to the government by the daughter of one of the deportees who died at Auschwitz. She was asking for material and moral damages. After issuing a formal statement that “these anti-Semitic persecutions provoked exceptional damage of extreme gravity,” the French court was quick to add that the deportation had already been “compensated for” since 1945, ruling out any reparations for the victims or their families.

I wonder if the timing of this week’s admission has anything to do with the recent explosion of anti-Semitic incidents in France—in January alone there were over 100 such episodes. The rise in anti-Semitism is being blamed on the recent Israeli actions in Gaza as well as the global economic crisis, both insane justifications for attacks on French Jews and the ugly vandalism of synagogues and other Jewish venues in France. Not that such incidents ever went away completely.

There are over 500,000 Jews in France making it the largest concentration of Jewish people in Western Europe. When I married my first wife, a French Jew, in Paris, I thought that all 500,000 of them were in attendance. Our wedding was a huge affair and one that represented the two conflicting sides of France’s Jewish population: Old World Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors hail from Eastern Europe but who’ve lived in France for generations, and Sephardic North African Jews who are more recent immigrants. Sophie’s mother was born in Occupied France during the war. It’s not something any of them like to talk about. Sophie’s father is part of the huge Sephardic community in France that arrived after the war from various Arab countries that were once French colonies.

We were married at a beautiful orthodox synagogue in the 9th arrondissement in Paris. The ceremony was officiated by the Chief Rabbi of France. The reception was held in the Bois de Boulogne and was probably the most lavish wedding I’ve ever attended, much less been a part of. It was over 15 years ago and most of it is a blur to me today. Sophie and I have both been happily married to other people for years now. 

The small group of Americans who came to Paris for our wedding stood out in the crowd not only because of a big difference in style and culture, but also because of the marked contrast of growing up Jewish in the United States versus Europe. It’s hard to put my finger on it, and I’m sure I’m grossly generalizing, but I find that European Jews project a different vibe on their Judaism than most American Jews, at least those who have grown up in big cities with large Jewish populations. I’m not sure how to describe it, other than to say that no matter how successful, educated, and integrated into French society these people are, they seem to remain more separate from the rest of the population because of their Jewishness. I’m sure this relates to their recent history, the one France is apologizing for this week, and the sense that at any moment anti-Semitism could rear its ugly head and put their survival at risk.

I’m not implying that the U.S. is immune from anti-Semitism. Especially lately. The same sparks that have ignited increased episodes of anti-Jewish demonstrations in Europe have hit home as well. Last month Kendall and I were stuck in traffic behind a rally on Wilshire Boulevard. We wondered what it was about and strained to see the placards the demonstrators were carrying. “We Love Hummus!” Kendall read. What? Was this some kind of protest organized by vegans? “No, I think it says ‘We Love Homos,’” I countered. Maybe this was a rally against the passage of Proposition 8. When we got closer, we saw the truth. The signs said “We Love Hamas.” This crowd on Wilshire was demonstrating in support of the terrorist organization whose charter talks about World Jewish Domination and calls for the obliteration of the State of Israel. Oy.

So, félicitations, France, for acknowledging your role in handing your citizens over to Nazi murderers. I’m sorry that I tend to be a bit cynical about what motivates such admissions of guilt. “We need to study the decision more in depth, to really be able to assess its meaning,” said Estee Yaari, a spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust. “However, initial press reports indicate this is an important and courageous decision that unambiguously confronts French actions during the Holocaust. This has moral significance that will hopefully serve to deepen awareness about the Holocaust in French society, something that is important both for grappling with the events of the past, and their repercussions today.”

Comments

[Jane]

Danny, if I told you how I really felt....well, let's just say that "yawn" isn't the word that comes to mind. I am angry, and the official words, so carefully measured, ring insincere and expedient to me.

Thank you for getting me riled today. I was way too mellow.

Lovely wedding picture, though.

[Otir]

Very good post as always, Dany, however, I'd like to comment, concur on certain aspects and disagree on your assumption about the motives behind the ruling that we didn't even rejoice upon, we being the French Jews. It was significant, for sure, but it did not bring the same kind of relief that was brought, for instance, in 1995, when Jacques Chirac finally acknowledged the responsability of L'Etat Français in the atrocities against its citizens and the deportation of 75,000 Jews during WWII.

First of, because as you stated it, it was a personal case brought to justice. It is not the first, there are several others that led to interesting rulings. There was recently a trial against SNCF which is the French nationalized railways, that were used to deport the Jews for instance. The trial brought in very interesting reactions (if you want me to research references for you just ask me, I will oblige with pleasure).

I disagree with you on stating that this ruling might have anything to do with the recent raise in antisemitic incidents in France. It does not. It may be a coincidence because of a coincidental timing only. The judicial system is very different in France from the judicial system in US remember it. The comments section is not a good place for me to develop on that topic, I just mention it. Judges may be influenced by the current events, but these kinds of trials take years and are pretty devoid of influence in general. Also, I don't have the specifics about the case itself, so I won't be positive about anything that would be dishonest intellectually (and you certainly know how intellectual honesty is a French national sport! :-)

I am the granddaughter of a deported to Auschwitz. My father's mom was arrested by the French police on September 2, 1943 and taken to Drancy, from where she left to Auschwitz and was assassinated there upon her arrival. We have information about her fate thanks to Klarsfeld's work, whom you mentioned. The French governement later acknowledged about her fate when it declared her "Mort pour la France" in 1949.

http://otir.net/dotclear/index.php/post/2006/04/25/524-aujourd-hui-jour-de-la-choa

I have never actually asked my father how this mention was notified to him - and how he acknowledged it. It has been extremely long and painful, and difficult to get pieces together for years for me, from him and surviving family members. I could write for ever about this.

Also about the two communities you describe so accurately, I feel like I could add my two cents, if I wasn't afraid of squatting your comment section with my awkward English! - as my mother's father was a Sephardic Jew, and they retired from Algeria just before the war (in Algeria, 1954) erupted there, to end up losing all their properties to the Independance, despite being warned by the rest of the family who were not so blind about what was going on.

(For your readers who might not know about the episode of French history, this is the link with Wikipedia for a short reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War )

Despite the French government at the time clearly had serious responsibilities in the disaster that it created for countless Jewish and non-Jewish families who lost everything in their home country and had to return to France with nothing on their shoulders, people were never actually compensated for their losses. I remember receiving something like 2,000 dollars which became my share given by my mom as a third of what she received herself being the third of the surviving heirs to her father's lost fortune. I guess that's life and governments' compensations.

It is subsequent to 1962's return of all the French Jews from Algeria, that the French Jewish community changed a lot in France. My family being the product of this nearly unconceivable mixture before 1962 (my parents married in 1954!), I have heard and learnt a lot about all this.

I think you should also mention a fact that is very prevalent in our French mentality and that is fundamentally different from what the American jewry faces in the U.S. is the relationship towards religion in general. Religion IS a private matter. Whether you are a catholic, a jew, a protestant, a muslim, a buddhist, an atheist, this is a private matter and not a social characteristic.

This is changing these days because of the growing problems with immigrants and fundamentalism, radicalisation of feelings around the Middle-East too. People have a complete misunderstanding of judaism because it is not so public as it can be in certain ways in the American life: ask a French guy what Chanuka is, he will look at you with a big interrogation mark in his looks.

Today, in the French Jewish communities, the responsibility of the French State of 1940 is not so much of an issue as the difficulties of living altogether in a country that used to have a tradition of integration that has really, really deteriorated in the last decades. Now, I have to say that I am now writing from a different place, since I have lived in the United States for the last ten years, but I still defend the fact that France is not an antisemitic country at all, contrarily to some of the impressions that come from the press treatment of the news.

[Danny]

Wow, merci beaucoup, Otir, for your fascinating comments. You are obviously way more qualified to comment on this matter than I am, and I so appreciate your thoughts here.

Your background sounds very similar to my ex-wife's. Are you sure you weren't at my wedding in 1993?

[Otir]

Laughs. I am sure. I don't remember ever going to a lavish wedding à l'Orée du Bois (ready to bet that was where it was?) except for my first cousin's one and I was in my teens then. I was pretty cut from any social life in the nineties, being secluded in my own marriage at the time... another story with another part of the ashkenazic branch of the European jewry!!

Glad you enjoyed my long post, and apologies for skipping one n in your name, Danny! (what was I thinking, I proofread three times the rest of the comment of course).

[Gordon]

Dear Danny,

In our house, growing up, I don't remember there ever being anything said about Jews or Judaism, one way or the other. Anytime I saw something in the news about vandalism and painting a swastika on something, I thought it was the strangest thing. I couldn't understand it. Why was this one religion singled out for such intense hatred ?

I've always been fascinated by the Nazis and the holacaust, trying to understand it, but always ending up puzzled.

The extermination of 6 million Jews is unquestionably the most horrific act ever to have been perpetrated by mankind. What action today could make up for that ? There is none. Reparations ? Pfft. Apologies ? Big deal.

I think that the admonition to never forget is the most important way to prevent it from ever happening again. It should be mandatory for every school class to tour the memorial in Washington, DC and the Ann Frank house in Amsterdam. That way, even the most hard hearted among us would be forced to examine and confront their emotions and thoughts and beliefs concerning Judaism.

Hugs, my friend...

[Sue Katz]

Danny, just to relate to a small point in a big piece - about Jewishness in Europe. I lived in the UK for 10 years and I totally "get" what you mean by the difference. The percentage of Jews in the UK (under 1%) makes them a tiny minority. They define their distinction by religion - not by culture or ethnicity or history. Other than faith, this makes for a much more assimilationist attitude. Being openly Jewish - in the way we're used to in the States - is considered a bit vulgar. One result is that the rest of the Brits know very little about Jewish culture. I could tell you stories!

[Amadaes]

Wonderful and important piece, Danny. I'll write more when I am not trying to type on my phone.

[Karina]

@ Gordon
I disagree with you.
The important thing is not "to never forget" but "to never allow it to happen again" to any human being, yet we have failed: Rwanda genocide, the Bosnian genocide in the 90's....etc
As a Jew I would prefer that we also treat the Palestinians with dignity.
We have not learned from history and some are quick to label those who oppose the Israeli occupation as "traitors" even though some of them are holocausts survivors and others like myself are sons and daughters of holocausts survivors.

@Otir
Thank you for sharing your story: I have Algerian friends as well as met Algerian-Jews who stayed behind who told me they never felt prosecuted but at he same time they were not recognized by the Algerian government for having helped the fight for Algeria's independence. It's surprising that the Jews left Algeria after the independence when they have lived in North Africa in harmony with the locals for centuries after being expelled from Spain.
We also tend to forget that there are Algerian-Jews who are native of the country: the first woman leader of an army who fought against the invasion of Arabs is said to be a Berber-Jew named "Dyhia" who was defeated in Tabarka/Tunisia....
That aspect of Berber-Jews is not well-know in North Africa. It could be that Berber-Jews do not publicize their Jewishness in a Muslim majority, even though I suspect most of them are now Muslims despite their Jewish origins.
Anyway, I went a bit off tangent here.
It's fascinating how rich our culture is.
Regards,