France on Sunday commemorated the Vel d'Hiv roundup, a mass arrest of Jews by French police in 1942 that led to their deportation to Nazi death camps.
The annual commemoration honors the victims of one of the most shameful acts undertaken by the country's wartime collaborationist government. In July 1942, French police rounded up thousands of Jews, including children, and sent them to concentration and extermination camps.
This year's commemoration took place against a backdrop of rising antisemitism in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish population. The surge in antisemitic acts, including threats, vandalism, and physical violence, has been linked to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Ahead of the ceremony, a plaque in Paris honoring a couple and their daughter who saved a 13-year-old child during the roundup was vandalized. These rescuers were recognized by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.
"To 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."
The Vel d'Hiv roundup, named after the Winter Velodrome where many detainees were initially held, involved over 4,500 police officers and dozens of requisitioned buses. The arrests occurred on July 16 and 17, 1942, with deportations continuing until July 20. A total of 13,152 people were deported, one-third of them children.
France's official acknowledgment of the state's role in the Holocaust did not come until 50 years after World War II, when then-President Jacques Chirac apologized for the French authorities' involvement in the Vel d'Hiv raids. The country was ruled by Vichy France, a government that collaborated with Nazi Germany after the Nazi invasion in 1940.