PARIS (AP) 鈥� France on Sunday commemorated the , a mass arrest of Jews by French police in 1942, one of the most shameful acts undertaken by the country鈥檚 wartime government.
French police rounded up thousands of Jews over two days in July 1942, wresting children from their mothers鈥� arms and dispatching everyone to Nazi death camps. , France honors those victims every year as it tries to keep their memory alive.
France is home to Europe鈥檚 largest Jewish population and has seen a surge in antisemitic acts, including threats, vandalism and physical violence, following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing .
A plaque in Paris honoring a couple and their daughter who saved a 13-year-old child during the roundup and were recognized by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations was vandalized ahead of the ceremony, French authorities said.
鈥淭o attack the Righteous is to desecrate the entire universe,” said Alice Rufo, a deputy defense minister. “The plaque will be restored. Their memory remains undiminished. In the face of antisemitism, in all its forms, the Republic will not yield an inch.鈥�
Following the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, the country was ruled by a government commonly known as Vichy France, which collaborated with Nazi Germany.
Vel d鈥橦iv derives from the name of the Winter Velodrome that many of the detainees were confined in before they were deported to concentration and extermination camps. On July 16 and 17, 1942, more than 4,500 police officers were mobilized and dozens of buses requisitioned. It was the largest roundup of Jews carried out in France during World War II. Arrests continued until July 20. A total of 13,152 people were deported, a third of them children.
It took France鈥檚 leadership 50 years after World War II to officially acknowledge the state鈥檚 involvement in the Holocaust, when then-President Jacques Chirac apologized for the French authorities鈥� role in the Vel d鈥橦iv raids.
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