The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews

by Susan Zuccotti

Many recent books and movies have documented the collaboration of the French authorities with the anti-Jewish German policies of World War II. Yet about 76 percent of France's Jews survived - more than in almost any other country in Western Europe. How do we explain this phenomenon? Certainly not by looking at official French policy, for the Vichy government began preparing racial laws even before any had been decreed by the German occupiers. To provide a full answer to the question of what kept more than 250,000 Jews alive, Susan Zuccotti examines the response to the Holocaust of the French people. Drawing on memoirs, government documents, and personal interviews with survivors, she tells the stories of ordinary and extraordinary French men and women, Jewish as well as non-Jewish. Here are stories of ambiguity and betrayal as well as courageous protection.^ They range from Pierre Laval, prime minister of the Vichy government who authorized roundups and deportation of foreign Jews whil