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Law regarding foreign nationals of the Jewish race

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Law regarding foreign nationals of the Jewish race
  • Law of 4 October 1940 regarding foreign nationals of the Jewish race
    Loi du 4 octobre 1940 relative aux ressortissants étrangers de race juive
Territorial extentFrench State
Signed byPhilippe Pétain
Signed4 October 1940
Effective4 October 1940
Related legislation
numerous regulations
Summary
foreign Jews subject to forced internment or reassignment of residence
Status: Void ab initio

The Law of 4 October 1940 regarding foreign nationals of the Jewish race was a law enacted by the Vichy regime, which authorized and organized the internment of foreign Jews[1] and marked the beginning of the policy of collaboration of the Vichy regime with Nazi Germany's plans for the extermination of the Jews of Europe. The law was published in the Journal officiel de la République française on 18 October 1940.

The law was signed by Marshall Philippe Pétain and the principal members of his government,[2][3] one day after the Law on the status of Jews provided a legal definition of the expression Jewish race and contained a list of occupations forbidden to Jews.[4][5][6]

Vichy France was nominally independent from Germany, unlike the northern Occupied Zone, which was under direct occupation by Germany. However, Pétain's regime did not wait for German orders to draw up antisemitic measures. Instead, it but took them on their own initiative.[2] Antisemitic measures began to be drawn up almost immediately after Pétain had signed the Armistice of 22 June 1940,[7] which ended hostilities and established the terms of the Germans occupation, including the division of France into the occupied and free zones.

See also

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References

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Notes
Footnotes
  1. ^ Rémy 1992, p. 91.
  2. ^ a b Fresco 2021, p. 20-21.
  3. ^ Rayski 2005, p. 12.
  4. ^ Geddes & Favell 1999, p. 79.
  5. ^ Rémy 1992, p. 87.
  6. ^ Klarsfeld 1983, p. xiii.
  7. ^ Epstein 1942, p. xxxv.

Works cited

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  • Epstein, Mortimer (1942). "The Statesman's Year-Book : Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1942". The Statesman's Year-Book. 79. Palgrave Macmillan. OCLC 1086492287. Legal position of Jews in Vichy France.—Almost immediately after the armistice, the Vichy government proclaimed its intention to deprive of their civil rights French people who are of Jewish faith or origin, and to place the Jews in the position of legal inferiority in which they find themselves in all other German-dominated countries. On October 3, 1940 (Journel Officiel of October 18), a law was published fixing the conditions under which a person is considered as being of Jewish origin. Access to all public offices, professions, journalism, executive positions in the film industry, etc. was prohibited to all such persons.
  • Fresco, Nadine (4 March 2021) [1st pub. La mort des juifs. Paris : Seuil, 2008]. On the Death of Jews: Photographs and History. Translated by Clift, Sarah. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78920-882-5. OCLC 1226797554. On the preceding page, the law from the day before (3 October 1940), signed by Marshall Philip Pétain and nine of his ministers, is the 'law on the status of the Jews.' We know that those in charge of Vichy, 'complicit even before having understood the inevitable extent of their own compromise', did not wait for it to be imposed by the occupying power before enacting it.73 We also know that whereas the German ordinance of the preceding month defined Jews by 'religion', the French statute of 3 October defined them by race.74

Further reading

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  • Gros, Dominique (1993). "Le « statut des juifs » et les manuels en usage dans les facultés de droit (1940-44)" [The "status of the Jews" and the textbooks used in law schools (1940-44)]. Cultures et Conflits (in French) (9/10). Paris: L'Harmattan: 139–174. JSTOR 23698834..
  • Joly, Laurent [in French] (2010). "Tradition nationale et « emprunts doctrinaux » dans l'antisémitisme de Vichy" [National tradition and "doctrinal borrowings" in the anti-Semitism of Vichy]. In Battini, Michele; Matard-Bonucci (dir.), Marie-Anne (eds.). Antisemitismi a confronto : Francia e Italia. Ideologie, retoriche, politiche (in French). Pisa: Edizioni Plus / Pisa University Press. pp. 139–154. ISBN 978-8-88492-675-3..
  • Laffitte, Michel (2010). "La question des « aménagements » du statut des juifs sous Vichy". In Battini, Michele; Matard-Bonucci (dir.), Marie-Anne (eds.). Antisemitismi a confronto : Francia e Italia. Ideologie, retoriche, politiche [Comparing anti-Semitism : France and Italy. Ideologies, rhetoric, policies] (proceedings) (in Italian). Pisa: Edizioni Plus / Pisa University Press. pp. 179–194. ISBN 978-8-88492-675-3. OCLC 705739140..
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