Seventy-five years ago, on July 16, 1942, and the following days, at the request of the Germans, more than 13,000 Jews – including 4,115 children – were arrested in their homes in Paris and the suburbs by 9,000 French officials.
On July 22, they were evacuated to the camps of Drancy, Pithiviers, and Beaune-la-Rolande, then sent to extermination camps. Only a few dozen adults survived.
Instituted by decree no. 93-150 of February 3, 1993, and Law no. 2000-644 of July 10, 2000, this day is marked each year by a commemorative ceremony in the Square of the Jewish Martyrs of the Vélodrome d’Hiver in Paris (15th arrondissement), in front of the monument erected near the former site of the Vélodrome.
The President of the Republic participated in the presence of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and confirmed France’s acknowledgment of responsibility for this heinous act, as first expressed by President Chirac in 2007.
In Nice, on August 31, a train with 554 people on board, including 42 children, left platform no. 1 of the station heading for the Auschwitz camp.
In total, in the years 1943 and 1944, 3,612 Jews (including 300 children) were deported. Only 3% of them survived.
Among them were Simone Jacob and her family, whose portraits adorned the commemorative plaque on this day of remembrance celebrated by civil authorities of the State and the associative and religious communities of the Jewish and Franco-Israeli community of Nice and its region, in the presence of a large and reflective assembly.
Prefect Leclerc read the official message from the Government.
A moment of intense emotion was the lighting of six candles in memory of the six million victims of the Shoah by survivors of the death camps, the son of one of the deceased, and representatives of the Judeo-Muslim Friendship Association. Gestures of significant symbolic value.
The rabbis’ prayers accompanied the ceremony, whose significance lies in the memory of the Nation, which rendered the speeches by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, and the President of the Departmental Council, Eric Ciotti, somewhat irrelevant.
Contrition is expressed in silence, not in a torrent of words.
