The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92040   Message #1754797
Posted By: Peter K (Fionn)
07-Jun-06 - 06:18 AM
Thread Name: BS: Vichy France guilty - at last
Subject: BS: Vichy France guilty - at last
Not before time:

France fined for deporting Jews

Too many European nations take comfort in regarding anti-semitism as a purely German thing, whereas it was virulent in France, Poland, Hungary etc (but seemingly not so much in Italy). Britain had already disposed of most of its Jews centuries earlier, but still there was strong support for Hitler in elements of the establishment. The late Queen Mother, then the queen, favoured Lord Halifax to succeed Chamberlain as PM because she knew Churchill would have no truck with Hitler.

France's defence has always been that it had no option but to carry out Hitler's bidding. But I have read that during WW2 there were sometimes fewer than 3,000 German troops in France. I can't find a reference right now, but I'd be interested if anyone can provide information about the scale of the German occupation.