Jewish Portal of Teacher Education

Source: Yad Vashem 

A variety of factors influenced the Germans’ plan to annihilate all the Jews of France, determining their fate over the four years of German occupation in the country. These factors include the clear distinction between veteran, well-established French-born Jews and foreign Jews who had immigrated to the country between the two world wars; the issue of the collaboration between the French Vichy regime and German interests with regards to the Final Solution of the Jews in France; French public opinion; the help provided to Jews by non-Jewish French citizens during these years; and the extensive underground rescue actions in which French and Jewish individuals were involved. All these make the story of the French Jews during the Second World War a unique chapter in the history of the Holocaust of European Jewry.

This issue of "Teaching the Legacy" - The e-newsletter for Holocaust Educators, addresses this subject from several perspectives: A historical review of the Holocaust of the French Jews, and an article about the Jewish resistance, present the highly complex nature of the persecution of the Jews in France during the war; an interview with members of the Alumim association describes the important work of this survivors organization; and another interview with Dora Weinberger, a survivor from France, depicts a personal side of life in occupied France.