Did the French FM make a faux pas at Yad Vashem?

Just prior to the announcement of the plan for the demilitarization and subsequent occupation of the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark) by the German military in late June 1940, there was a haphazard evacuation of citizens from all the islands. The percentage of the population leaving each island was highly variable; almost everyone left Alderney; only one-eighth of the population of Jersey left. Certainly, most self-identified Jews left. The Jews who remained were for the most part not affiliated, or were members of the Church of England. They could not have known that the local governments working with Nazi administrators adopted Nazi racial doctrine, which considered them to be Jews. Auguste Spitz, Therese Steiner, and Marianne Grunfeld, non-British citizens, were deported to occupied France and then to Auschwitz, where they perished. The "First Order relating to measures against Jews" was promulgated in the autumn of 1940. It required all Jews (then defined as persons having more than two Jewish grandparents) to register on Jersey, at the Jersey Aliens Office) and to put "Jewish Undertaking"/ "Juedisches Geschaeft" signs in the windows of any businesses they might own (twelve people registered on Jersey). Eight more orders followed during the occupation, depriving the Jews of citizenship, forcing them to sell their businesses or put them under "Aryan" ownership, banning them from owning radios, and so on, often under penalty of confinement "in a camp for Jews" for infractions. The Jews who were sent to the Wurzach, Laufen, and Biberach internment camps in southern Germany were transported along with 2200 nonJews forced to leave because they were foreign-born or related to British military officers. The treatment in these camps was somewhat better than that in the concentration camps; they were allowed Red Cross parcels, and many survived. Jews who were not deported, or who never registered (e.g. the artists and Resistance propagandists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore) mostly survived under house arrest or in hiding. A few Jews went into the concentration camps; a Jersey Jew, John Max Finkelstein, survived Tittmoning, Buchenwald, and Theresienstadt, returning to Jersey in 1946. A helpful book on the topic is by Sir David Fraser:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jews-Channel-Islands-Rule-1940-1945/dp/1902210484/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273416895&sr=1-2 My (fictional) account of the Jersey occupation http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0715638769/ref includes the text of all nine "Orders relating to measures against Jews".

Philippe Douste Blazy is and will remain an idiot. Two or three years ago, trying to avoid a difficult debate at a convention of his party (UDF, a center right party different from UMP, Chirac's party)), he voluntarily missed the session at the time of the debate and then explained that he hab been called urgently by a private patient !!In answer to questions of his amazed colleagues who knew very well that he had no patients at all since many years, he explained that an helicopter had been sent to bring him to the patient.!! Alas ! an helicopter coming to a convention in a small province town in France is something that people will note. No helicopter had been seen or registered anywhere ! This blunt and stupid lie was obvious to every body. There too, the CANARD ENCHAINE told the story. Such a stupidity did not prevent tricky Jacques Chirac to make him a minister but this is sheer small politician tactics : Chirac hopes that Douste-Blazy's ferocious ambition will make him betray his party (UDF) whose leader (BAYROU) often is strongly and adamantly critical of Chirac's policy. The truth is that Douste Blazy did not become a minister of state because of any personal merit but only because this helps Chirac's tactics and ambition to be reelected. Pauvre France !

"The UK repaid some lend lease credits and more, although it did receive some Marshall Plan aid." Lend Lease was created BECAUSE Britain run out of money early in the war. After the war Britain was just as bankrupt. Which is why she was, by far, the largest recipient of Marshall Aid. France was the second largest. But don't get me wrong. Britain contributed plenty to the war effort. She was bled white. She gave more precious stuff than money, including Coventry. After the fall of France she was offered generous peace terms by Hitler, yet she fought on alone. She suffered the Blitz, while the Soviet Union delivered daily trainloads of oil and iron ore and chromium to the Third Reich, and the Left reviled Churchill and his class as war mongers, plutocrats and worse than Nazis. Had Britain caved the US would have had no base from which to intervene on the continent. It would have been much harder to supply Russia. The war may well have had a different ending. Thus I meant no recrimination. Britain has plenty to be proud of in that chapter. No need for baloney about loan repayments.

Finally after years of enduring articles in the European press about how stupid Americans are...the incessant polls regarding how we can't locate Mexico and Canada..how we don't know our own regional history... Revenge has never been so sweet.

Philippe DOUSTE-BLAZY is not a diplomat by training indeed and his question was absolutely spontaneous without any intention of causing any harm to the memory of anybody. He was not trying to decrease the French responsabilities during the Dark periof of the Collaboration between PETAIN's regime and HITLER. he belongs to a generation of french politicians who fight antisemitism in France and stands up against all forms of racisms. Since Jacques CHIRAC arrival to the power, french foreighn policy has seaked to reach a real equilibrium between the legitimate interests of Israelis and Palestinians. Jacques CHIRAC is absolutely against any form of Antisemitism. He has made not only recently a lot of efforts for warming the relations between France and Israel. Jacques CHIRAC was unprepared to the surge of antisemitism among muslim communities in France and certainely has had difficulties to handdle the situation with extremely biased mass media. A book recently published by a former Israeli Ambassador in France enlightens the ambiguities of the French Foreighn Policy in the Middle East. The blind eyes on Hamas and the Islalic Djihad as well as the Hisballah of the French Foreighn Ministry is really astonishing. A very important fact is that while the personal relations between Chirac and Sharon were cool during a long time, the economic relations and cultural relatiions have always been excellent during Chirac Tenure. The extremely warm welcome receptions and discussions between CHIRAC and SHARON during his last visit to Paris are associated by many visits of Ministers and Officials from the two countries in the two counties. France is also trying to help genuinely the palestinian People to go peacefully to statehood. France is also trying seriously to stop Iran's nuclear ambition which constitute threats not only to Europe and Israel but also to Turkey and most of the countries of the arab world the population of which is largely sunnite. The American Fiasco in Irak wascoorrectly assesed by Jacques CHIRAC. The recognition of Ariel SHARON as a great Statesman is also a mark of sound judgement. Dominique DE VILLEPIN has delivered an extremely emotional speech about the deportation and extermination of the French Jews and about French responsability. France with delay is expressing remorse about the Nazi period and also remorse aboit its colonial past especially towards the HARKIS. These are positive moves. france tries really to integrate arabs from North Africa into the French Nation . This an immense challenge. We must hope that French secularism and "LA LA??cit?©" will win and will confine the religions in the private spheres of society while the values of integrity and citizenship will increase. This hope is far from beeing enacted. Let us hope for the best best both in France and Israel and the whole Arab world. It is in thebest interest of everybody that moderation and peace finally prevail Chanah Tovah Marc Abitbol

I don't think you will be able to read my post because the time is up so I will try to find you (and also NACL , very interesting post!) on one of the next bulletin boards! But concerning "perfidious Albion", may I suggest the Biography of Lady Diana Mosley by Anne de Courcy. Britain had a fascist party ( the BUF) headed by Sir Oswald Mosley. Very shocking. But I don't want to waste my post if nobody is going to see it. I will look for you to-morrow!

"A big issue in French politics blew up in February when the parliament voted a law to teach high school students that France played a civilising role in its colonies" In the autumn of a year in the 1960s hundreds of corpses floated in the Seine through Paris. They were North African demonstrators beaten to death in the courtyards of the Paris police. (The chief of police was Maurice Papon who as a Vichy official in Bordeaux had sent thousands of Jews to their death during WWII.) Papon was only prosecuted in the late 90's upon the death of his protector, Francois Mitterand. In the 1990s copies of an Algerian newspaper edition remembering that Paris atrocity were yet confiscated by the French police at Lyon airport. It was until recent years never mentioned by French radio or television. Most Frenchmen are to this day in the dark on the matter. It is true that France was not a republic during WWII. She was an undisguised and brutal police. Today France is more sophisticated.

The UK repaid some lend lease credits and more, although it did receive some Marshall Plan aid. The US ambassador to the UK in 1940 was Joe Kennedy, another anti-semite, who kept cabling Roosevelt that Britain was going to surrender to Germany. Roosevelt ignored then recalled him. The UK at the time realised Germany's invasion bluff. France however caved in, as it still continues to do today in other issues in the interests of 'peace '.

"Many Frenchman refusing to accept defeat escaped to North Africa, a French colony, or to England" I appreciate your attempt to present a balanced picture, and I am sure you are sincere, but it is not quite as balanced as it appears. The Frenchmen who fled the metropol to fight against the Nazis were embarassingly few. There were of course the honorable exceptions you mention, but their number was miniscule, compared to the vastness of the French population. Yes, around 125,000 Pilou were evacuated from Dunkirk. However, almost all of chose to return home once the Armistice permitted it. De Gaulle's officer's begged them to remain and fight alongside the British. Very few did. Many Frenchmen did fight vigorously, but mostly against the Allies not with them. French troops resisted the Anglo America landings in Tunisia, Operation Torch, with considerable tenacity. They inflicted thousands of casualties on Tommies and GIs. Those who filled the ranks of the Free French were largely colonial infantry from French Equatorial Africa. LeClerc had to recruit Lebanese Christians and Spaniards in Algeria to "whiten" his armored division for the liberation of Paris. It was only thereafter that Frenchmen flocked to the colors in large numbers. Indeed there was not a single French uniform on Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. LeClerc's troops only came ashore in early September.

After reading the articles referred to in previous posts regarding the fate of Jews in The Channel Islands, what made me shudder as an ex-British Jew was the ease in which the ?Ruling Class? of the islands assumed their role as Gauletiers, and the acceptance of occupation laws by the general populace. Growing up in England, I had perhaps naively thought that the British would have ?(fought) on the beaches, ?.on the landing grounds, ? in the fields and in the streets, ? in the hills; ? never surrender?. From reading about what happened in The Channel Islands, I fear that the fate of the Jews in Britain would have been no different from that in the rest of Occupied Europe.

"Immediately after the end of WW2 the US made the UK pay for all materials and assistance given to them by the US. The UK has only recently finished paying for such help." Untl almost the end you made sense. But your last paragraph is nonsense. The UK was never asked to repay the billions extended to her under Lend Leas, and she never did. Moreover, Britain was the largest recipient of the Marshall Plan.

The Americans here are grossly hypocritical. The USA did not join WW2 until December 1941, after the Holocaust had started in Russia. Have the Americans not heard of the St Louis, a ship packed with Jewish refugees that was turned away in May 1939 by the US authorities ? Many of those refugees were then accepted in Britain. The Americans also knew about the death camps in 1942 but also refused to bomb them. Recent American history is littered with anti-semites. Shall we start with Henry Ford and go on to Charles Lindbergh, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, etc... ? Immediately after the end of WW2 the US made the UK pay for all materials and assistance given to them by the US. The UK has only recently finished paying for such help.

I am a British Jew living in LA. About seven or eight years ago, I was on the island of Jersey touring. I went to the former German Hospital now a Museum to the Occupation of the Island by the Nazis. In a cabinet on a wall in one of the rooms was a series of newspaper clippings. One that caught my eye told of the deportation of five Jews from the island of Guernsey -- one was a nurse -- having been turned in by the main British authority on the island. (Mayor? Sheriff?) I was stunned. When I was a kid growing up in London I knew about latent anti-Semitism but this was unthinkable!! However, on the positive side, the British have been talking more openly about the Channel Islands in recent years. The BBC did a whole dramatic series on that very subject called "Island at War."

Marie you state in your post that "some" french citizens joined with the Nazi's...you did not learn your history very well. I would say that maybe half of the country were Vichy supporters and enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunatley for them the Nazi's were defeated but I am sure that many of them still live in the past wishing that things had turned out differently. I don't think Esther meant to say all French are stupid but I will say that the french are an arrogant people who have absolutely nothing to be arrogant about. You were shameful during the 2nd W.W., you are shameful towards the U.S. and you are shameful people towards the state of Israel. For these things I dislike your country. I visited there once and did not feel welcome I will never visit again.

l believe that Jersey (English )jews were deported to France and hence to the camps as well as English jews or American jews arrested in Europe.

As Denise so well states: "France under the direction of Petain in Vichy was not a Republic, all the symbols of the French Republic were prohibited:no (Liberty,Egality or Fraternity) but instead "Work,Family Fatherland". France had been ignominously defeated; a new government of France was instituted with Petain at it's head, democracy was dead, fascism and Germany were ruling France. Petain was a Quisling. They were directly accountable to Hitler, they were not free. Many Frenchman refusing to accept defeat escaped to North Africa, a French colony, or to England. Among the most famous escapees: Pierre Mendes-France ( later Prime minister), Charles de Gaulle to London and Antoine de Saint Exupery to North Africa; he was a great aviator and war hero. To you, he is known as the author of "The Little Prince" which is addressed to his best friend Leon Werth, a Jew. During the dark years, here are some of the writer, they are writers of the first order, who were proactively for the Jews: Francois Mauriac, Vercors ( The Silence of the Sea), Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Malraux, Albert Camus. Very loosely we can say that they represented what is called the French Left. There were many others, not as illustrious but who nevertheless, saved the honor of France. On the opposite side there was scum such as Louis Ferdinand Celine, condemned to death by the post-war French government, but he escaped to Sweden - (I think) and many others such as Robert Brasillach. Brasillach was condemned to death and executed in spite of a petition circulated to save him. Sarte and Simone de Beauvoir refused to sign it specifically because of their outrage about the treatement of the Jews. Francois Mauriac, who protected and launched Elie Wiesel signed it in the name of christian compassion and forgiveness, Camus signed it because he was against the death penalty. But Brasillach was executed and he fully deserved it. After the Liberation, there was a purge and a blood bath. More people were killed during the immediate post-war period than during the ENTIRE French Revolution. Anyone who had shown any kind of sympathy or collaborated with the Vichy regime was either shot or had his property confiscated and lost his civil rights. Even famosu actors such as Maurice Chevalier, Charles Trenet and Sacha Guitry had to spend some time in jail. Many generals of the Vichy regime were condemned to death, some of them escaped to Spain, such as the genral Nogues who had been the Resident ( Chief administrator= Viceroy) of Algeria, many others: either executed or had their property confiscated, "dechus de droits civiques" : They lost their civil rights. So did many civil servant of the Vichy regime. Unfortunately I have had to simplify greatly because many of those French traitors manged after the war to make themselves pass as patriots instead of the vile collaborators that they had been and as a result were able to infiltrate post-war French society and even some branches of the government. It was actually a civil war, this is why I call it the French against the FRENCH.

France has always been two completely different societies: just as the Jews in Israel to-day who are divided into two diffeent societies: those who believe in the values of the 18th century enlightment and those who stick to the obsurantism of an other era. So it is with the French; it has been so for a long time, ever since Voltaire and his "Ecrasez l'infame". ( Crush the vermin of obscurantism) to the Dreyfus Affair which split French society right in the middle. On the side of Dreyfus some of the greatest minds of the age: Emile Zola ( J'accuse) , Anatole France ( read Penguin island), Roger Martin du Gard ( please read Jean Barois,well worth it!) and many others. "France to the French? " , said Anatole France, please say France to the forgers, to the torturers of an innocent man and who who would cover France with shame in front of the whole of Europe". Very passionate people, intelligent, generous and armed with the famous and irrepressible French wit. When a Frenchman of their caliber decides to cover their adversaries with ridicule, the pen is dealier than the sword. One of their greatest victim: Du Paty de Clam whose grandson ended up having the destiny of the French Jews in his hands under the Vichy government. It is getting late, so, for those who are interested, I will explain Vichy in my next psoting.

Last week I was in London and went to the Imperial War Museum.One floor is devoted to the Holocaust.This special exhibition was opened by the Queen a few years ago. There are references to the Jews of the Channel Islands and their fate.There is an old Channel Islands newspaper printing regulations concerning the Jews. I have also read books on the Channel Islands during the war.They record that before the British authorities pulled out in 1940,all Jews were told to leave as well.I believe the small number of Jews left were refugees from Germany or Austria.One of the books has an illustration of a shop window with a sign "Jewish Enterprise" which had to be placed in the windows of Jewish shops.

Jake, Thank you for responding to my post. Doubtlessly you will correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that Rabbi's had been historians since the beginning of time. According to Rabbi Gedaliay Lieberman, (www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id-525)it was not an "off the cuff remark by one shadowy, undefined individual" that caused the British Parliament to abandon it's proposal to relocate 500,000 people but a direction from leaders of the Zionist movement. Whilst I am not in any way defending the learned Rabbi's view point. However, in this case, the facts speak for themselves and are provable by reference to Parliamentary records. I can understand your anger about the Brits not bombing the railway lines or the death camps. I can offer no excuse for that but would ask you to bear in mind that Britain was on its knees and barely able to survive at that time. Regards, A concerned observer

Mr proud french. Thats hardly news.

The France under the direction of Petain in tue capitale Vichy was not a Republique,all the symbols of the french republique were prohibited:no Liberty,Egality and fraternity ,but Work,Family Fatherland.The "french STATE"was very close of fashiste state from this time. please don't write"Republic of Vichy",historic mistake.

well said again, i come from an Arab country and altough from time to time i have had some demeaning experience because of being jewish, on a person to person basis it was friendship as usual. i wish more people would think like you, within my faith aslo i wish ther would be less generalisation and less demonizing towards the Arabs... but its hopefull to see that ther is another side open for dialogue. Allah Ma'ak ! Gabriel

It is no wonder that Monsieur Douste-Blazy inquired as to whether British Jews were also murdered by the Nazis. The French collaborationist "Vichy Republic" arrested and imprisoned 77,000 Jews and then shipped them off to Germany to be gassed at Auschwitz and other murder camps. It would therefore be of no small consolation to the guilty feelings of the French had Britain been equally complicit. Were it so, then the French would not feel so strongly like the rats that they were.

How about telling the rest of the story as it appeard in Le Canard Enchain?? Douste-Blazy had spent the night before in Gaza, in a hotel near Moussa Arafat's villa. That was the night about 70 people laid siege to it and after a gun battle kidnapped Arafat and murdered him. A disturbed night is no excuse for crass stupidity - the man was in charge of France's health system until last year and obviously didn't get much training before his promotion to Foreign Minister - but high jinks of that sort could knock one off one's perch a bit the morning after! I believe someone has already pointed out that the Channel Islands were occupied by the Nazis so he wasn't as wide of the mark as all that!

Thank you for you honesty and integrity Marie! Please come back and post more comments here, whether they be about the French or otherwise !

Big deal already how many Jews know about what happened in France during the war? People make mistakes so what? this isnt some evil frenach plot against israel there are enough real ones to get into this non issue.

You are correct the Germansoccupied the channel Islands and some jews were deported from there.

The French FM was technically correct. Have you not heard of the Channel Islands (British territory just off the coast of France)? Jews were deported from there during the war I believe. When I telephoned Yad BVashem once to ask why the Channel Islands did not appear in the Valley of Communities, a lady answered me in a tone suggesting that I was a trouble-maker. Was this merely rudeness or impatience on her part, or was it part of that ridiculous Anglophilia that pervades sections of secular Israeli society? Not that I love the French government so much, but don't just pick on them - the British are not sacrosanct!

Well, if all these M.P.'s indeed declared a readiness to find a solution to the problem of 'endangered persons', then surely some off-the-cuff remark by one shadowy, undefined individual couldn't possibly have prevented them from translating words into action, in a parliamentary demcocracy. As for an 'article' by a 'rabbi' (since when did rabbis become historians?), that is a weighty charge to suggest that the Jewish Agency proposed gassing 300 rabbis. Sounds like a sinister libel associated with certain fanatic anti-Zionist rabbis, the leader of whom (Yoel Teitelbaum) was rescued by the Zionists and boarded a train to Switzerland, not a boat to 'Palestine'. The aerial photographs of Auschwitz and the trains leading there that were made by the British during the war speak volumes. The truth is they knew what was going on, and didn't have the decency to destroy Auschwitz and the train lines. Why? Too much of a diversion from the main war effort? If the Brits were planning to move Jews to the British colonies, then why not to Palestine, which was a British mandate? Come to think of it, they did move Jews to a British colony -Cyprus - where they interned the Jews in camps and thousands died from typhus and other diseases associated with cramped conditions. I know the Brits have much reason to resent the Zionists, after the Zionists sent them packing from 'Palestine' and successfully prevented a British colonial 'solution' to the problem, but really now - there is no need for fabrications like that.

Yes Mr. Foreign Minister Dousze-Blazy , Jews were deported from the conquered Channel Islands by the Germans during WW2. They were made to report to British police stations were British local officials did nothing to stop the deportations. And guess what, those deportees never returned.

Douste-Blazy comes from a prominent rich family, and is a cardiac sergeon by training. In France, the people don't elect ministers... the prime minister does. So he's a friend of the Prime Minister :) As for the level of education in France, it is quite high, although there are more and more problems. Unfortunately, I was forced to vote Chirac if I didn't want to lose my rights as a French citizen, since I refused to vote LePen (aka Hitler, or at least Moussolini). It's true there's an anti-semitism problem in the French Muslim community, but there's also one on the extreme-right wing, mainly extremist catholic, electorate. Funnily enough, the second in command of the FN (LePen's party) is a Jew, and the third is of Arab origin... As for the Muslims, I think their anti-semitism comes from ignorance, and can be remedied through education (anti-semitic educated Muslims are rare over here). As for the extreme right, well they are mostly educated. That's scary! Anyways, the problem is complex, and I think we need to reform our politics so as to avoid people being in the wrong ministries... Cheers! Karim.

I WAS WONDERING IF THE FRENCH ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE CONCEPT OF LOVE AND TOLERANCE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM.CLEARLY THEY HATE EACH OTHER AND EVERYBODY ELSE.ISREAL SHOUD SHRUGG OFF WHATEVER COMES OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF FRENCH SO CAALED LEADERS AS IT IS OF NO VALUE WHATSOEVER,NOT EVEN A NEGATIVE VALUE.

you nailed it , about the french politics... to point finger at whoever put him there is right on! Myself being educated by ways of french schooling , i am astonsihed at what i read. surely the education levels in France and their influence is noteworthy ...so where does he come from?

Yes, Yoram, you are right when you say "they don`t seem to explore that their current strong anti-Israel sentiment ". We lack criticism and our press is rather silencious abou that question. French People are always willing to think they are right whatever the subject may be : and that's our biggest default and it gets on my nerve ! I think that there are electoral reasons : perhaps, our politicians want attract the muslim community, which amounts to 3 millions People here. That could explain the strange foreign policy towards Israel. You known, many French people were not happy to see Jacques Chirac be like a friend with Arafat when he came in France to die. I was quite upset about it. Maybe, there is worse reason like a unconscious anti-semit feeling, inherited from the past, which doesn't disappear. finally, I think that the situation in France is very diverse : there are people who are not at all anti-semit and who disagree with the French policy towards Israel and that is my case and others people who are guilty of prejudice and in reality, I think that racist or anti-semit people are silly people who don't think and who feel superior by despising other people... to Esther, I totaly admit criticism about France: it is even welcome. Like every country, France has defaults and I think that criticism from foreign countries can be useful to France but are insults necessary ? that was the reason for my reaction.

As someone who lives in France let it be known that Douste Blazy is known in France as a very good public speaker about things he knows nothing. A big issue in French politics blew up in February when the parliament voted a law to teach high school students that France played a civilising role in its colonies. It was supported by ex-Colons from Algeria and got through largely by stealth - most delegates were not present. Douste Blazy voted for. Then there were protests, including from the Algerian government. Algeria demanded an apology and made the analogy between the French colonial regime massacres and burning thousands of people to death (or just gassing them in caves) in 1945 on the one hand, and the Nazi extermination of Jews on the other. This was right in the middle of a) attempts by the far-right in the south to honour French fascists of the OAS by erecting statues to them and b) negotiating important oil deals between France and Algeria in a context where the US has largely displaced Total Fina Elf in its traditional sphere of influence. So Douste Blazy made a speech in the presence of the Algerian ambassador - "There will never - NEVER - be an official history in France. We must get a committee of French and Algerian historians together to recommend what official history must be taught in the schools." That is a total contradiction in two sentences. The man is seriously clueless about history but is very clued up about how to play politics for French interests. Douste Blazy comes from a political background where there is a blurring between Gaullisme and Vichy, both based on French nationalism. A LOT of people served Vichy and moved smoothly over into serving De Gaulle. The Jews were to them - as the Gypsies still are today - a "footnote in history" as Le Pen put it. That is to say they simply are not important. It's not hate, it's indifference and contempt. Now with Israel, Jews are seen as powerful and very important to help assure French interests in the Middle East, so the French government has some very important campaigns "against anti-Semitism" to attack the Arabs (and not the real anti-Semites on the far-right) and they promote Jewish nationalism in many ways (funding schools, Prime Minister grovels each year at the CRIF dinner etc, Nicole Guedj doesn't even allow non kosher food in her ministry). Blazy is very capable to say the right things to play along.

Don't take this so seriously. Since Louis de Funes french don't know to laugh. My favorite film for ever is Rabbi Jacob!

Rather than throwing the usual "cliches" against the french that do not accept criticism, that did not behave properly during WWII, that are antisemitic, that are anti-Israeli and so on bla-bla-bla, please note it is an established french newspaper that dug out the story to make a laugh on a french FM that has a poor reputation in his own country.

Yes the Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans. Jews from Guernsey and jersey were deported to their deaths and the British islanders cooperated with the Germans. However the British Jews fled to Britain. The Jews were murdered were of German and Austrian orign.

You are quite right Marie, the French people are not a stupid people, no doubt as the French would also say about the Israeli people. However when the French attack Israel they frame it as being about the Israeli government, much the same as posters here discuss the French government. The French say " Sharon is terrible", neglecting the fact the Israeli people put him in government. If I say " Chirac is terrible" , well the French put him in office. Yes, the French have been taught about the past and deportations of French and european jews to die in the death camps, but they don't seem to explore that their current strong anti-Israel sentiment (not anti-jewish of course, they say)is a product of wanting to be relieved of that guilt, and by equating Israel's occupation with their past behavior. There is no equivalency. I respect the history, culture, and elegance of the French people, enjoy your singers like Piaf and Halliday, but until their choice of government is a strong friend of Israel and a true ally in the war on terror, I maintain they are in deliberate support of French government policies and not true friends of Israel or the jewish people.

I forget always that french people don't accept the critique from somebody else. I don't hate french, my children and grand-children are french. Any way you have to admit that people who criticize the most are french ( USA, Israel,UK etc.)Try once to laught to yourself, it makes good.

Given the French record of collaboration in WW II, it is no surprise that the current FM has memory problems. Yes, the French capitulated, and deported. How could the English have not done the same?

The question raised by M. Douste-Blazy may seem naive and stupid, but the real scandal is the answer by Yad Vashem officials. Jews were indeed deported to concentration camps fom the three main English Channel Islands. Jews were not very numerous in these tiny islands, but this is not a reason not to keep them in our memory.

I don't undertsand why Esther Gunthers needs to insult French People instead of thinking quietly: according to her, they are "stupid, jealous, debilitted"... I think, dear Esther, that you are yourself blinded by your hatred for France !! exactly what you reproach the French People... this is frightening. However, that is true that some people are still anti-semit in France. They are the muslim communauty and some very stupid french people as well but, unfortunately, like everywhere in the world. in France, we totally recognize the collaboration of French State and of some French people with the nazis. I learnt it at school and the French media often talk about that collaboration. This is a painful shame for us and we don't deny it. of course, Great Britain had a better behaviour during the war than us and we know it as well. and I really like Britisg People. But please, stop generalizing !! it is dangerous... Marie

Give my best regards to your friend Jean-Marie!

What a sad spectacle to see the French FM attempt to find a way to equate the hated English with France's most cooperative deportation of Jews to the death camps in WWII. If the peace-loving French still harbor their irrational and historic dislike of the English, why should we accept their claims that the truly violent Palestinians will ever act rationally and not continue to seek the destruction of Israel if we agree with French proposals that call for Israel to commit territorial suicide? The French have no credibility in advising Israel in any way as their own actions in undermining the usa and seeking european state supremcy, are based on their own lack of rationality and self-absorbed national emotionalism.

Thank you from me too. I like your comments today and you have all my sympathy. Gros bisous.

It looks that it was the curator of Yad Vashem who does not know Jewish history. Journalists can be excused, but this person is definetely not qualified for the job.

Karim, you are correct. Jersey is not all of Britain, and the British who fought the nazis valiantly do indeed deserve our respect. My comment was more tongue in cheek than anything else. As for Jersey itself, there were those British who went along with the Nazi, either actively or passively and there were even more who resisted them to the fullest extent possible under the circumstances. Do you ever see the film, Le Chagrin et La Pitie? Yes, the Vichy, Pellepoix, Laval, Darlan and their cohorts were eager collaborators whose memory is a stain on the history of France. But there were also many French who were active in the resistance (Jean Moulin) and gave assistance to the Jews. There is perhpas no other country in Europe where the hatred of one side against the other during WWII was so intense and this still exists in France today.

France anti-semitic? Most of the Arabs living in there yes definitely, but the French state and its people no The only country today closed to be called anti-semitic is...England. London mayor is bashing Jews & Israel every 2 weeks. In France it would not be tolerated from an official, and he would be forced to resign. University teacher union has voted in favor of Israel boycott (and has retracted under pressure but anyway). You have a true leftist anti-Israel palestinian propaganda newspaper called The Guardian. Never read anything like this in France. Sorry but that's a fact Vive La Republique, Vive la France

I recently saw a BBC documentary about one of these islands. I also cannot recall which one it was. It is about some 12 Jews, not more than that. One relative survivor was interviewed as well. I can't think of the French minister was reffering to that. Fact is that many Europeans of my generation, post WW II, not know what happened in Normandy precisely. They have absolutely no clue.

Hello Schlomo, I read with interest your comments on the role of Britain in the Holocaust and would appreciate your comments on the following two paragraphs that are reproduced from an article written by Rabbi Gedaliya Liebermann. "The British government granted visas to 300 rabbis and their families to the Colony of Mauritius, with passage for the evacuees through Turkey. The "Jewish Agency" leaders sabotaged this plan with the observation that the plan was disloyal to Palestine, and the 300 rabbis and their families should be gassed. On December 17, 1942 both houses of the British Parliament declared its readiness to find temporary refuge for endangered persons. The British Parliament proposed to evacuate 500,000 Jews from Europe, and resettle them in British colonies, as a part of diplomatic negotiations with Germany. This motion received within two weeks a total of 277 Parliamentary signatures. On Jan. 27, when the next steps were being pursued by over 100 M.P.'s and Lords, a spokesman for the Zionists announced that the Jews would oppose the motion because Palestine was omitted." Thank you. A concerned observer.

The Britishers' role in Shoah was hardly more salutary than that of the Nazis. While hanatzim were busy first preparing for our slaughter and then actively exterminating us, the teabags did little to help. Indeed, they did what they could NOT to help, including, but not limited to: refusing to accept Jewish refugees before the War, debarring Jewish refugees from the lifeline of the Mandate by imposing an immigration moratorium, prefering to leave concentration camps intact when they could've destroyed them, interning and/or murdering survivors of the death camps after the War. That's just the tip of the iceberg. mls_lists@msn.com

First, immigration into Palestine had been impeded by the Arabs from the first attempt by the Zionists to emmigrate. Second, how and why you should expect a continent that had spend the past several centuries moving citizens around the globe without the least bit of concern for any of the locals encountered makes your question as useless as it is inane.

Please get your facts correct otherwise you are as guilty as the French Foreign Minister. The only Jewish community ever was in Jersey. This community survived the war and flourished in the 50s and 60s but numbers have since dwindled.

What is the point of making a big deal about this and embarassing the person?

The question was not so stupid. British jews living in the Channel Islands, which were occupied by the Naxis during WW2, were deported by the Germans to the European mainland and were subsequently killed. This is well-documented and data should be available on the internet. Some German jews resident in the Uk were interned for a short period by the UK government after hostilities commenced but were subsequently released from detention.

Hi Yaakov, First of all, did the British deport those Jews? Was it a British governor, or whatever? Was it British people who sold them out? And even if British people were responsible, the responsibility isn't at the heigtht of France. There was a French SS brigade at the time. The French Vichy government was responsible for deporting not only Jews, Roms, gays and the handicapped, but also sending a huge amount French workers to Germany as slaves/hostages. The French share a huge responsibility for the crimes committed by the axis during the war. So the comments by Mr Douste-Blazy concerning British responsibility are totally misplaced and uncalled for. Even if the French and the British have issues, we owe the British our freedom as a nation, and should show them the respect they deserve. This doesn't mean we should agree to their every policy (as the US would like us do) but simply show them respect, friendship and aid in times of adversity. These comments are not only disrespectful to France, but to the Jews as well, since it seems like he wants to use the shoah for political purposes. Regards, Karim.

If Douste-Blazy meant to distract attention from French collaboration in the Holocaust, he did a great job. I suppose he finds this stunt more comfortable than, say, confronting the human capacity for evil as demonstrated by French participation in the Holocaust.

Please don't try to defend the french ministre, I am sure that he hasn't thougt one minute about Guernesey or Jersey, I think that he even don't know about this. You have to undestand that German Occupation is so shameful and painful for french people that they need to jusify it and try to find other guilty. Believe me, still today many french believe that UK was also occupied and they don't admit that it is french who have send thousands of Jews to the death. Open your eyes and see how anti-Semit is France still today.

The ban of repatriation of Jews to the Land of Israel was a British attempt to protect the inhabitants of Palestine against the followers of another "unfriendly" ideology. To put it mildly.

One of the British Channel Islands, Jersey, I'm not sure whoch one, was occupied by the Nazis and I believe Jews were deported from there. Perhaps that is what the minister was referring to.

Maybe if Jews hadn't been pushing for a Zionist agenda in Palestine against the interests of the idigenous population, and instead had another cooperative and neighborly philosophy, then more emigration from Europe might have been possible before the war. Instead, Zionists waged economic, political, and military terrorism in order to segregate themselves and made it difficult for the Brits to support opening the borders to more immigration. When will the poison of Zionism be seen for what it is?

...and were also interned as potential 'enemy' aliens. It is a well known fact that hundreds of Jews of German origin where detained with German nationals in the UK. Some were even sent to Australia to prison camps. When the British government could no longer conceal the fact that it was interning Jews with Nazis and considering them an equal threat, they stopped the practice.

If Le canard enchaine or Haaretz or 8/10 of the previous backtalkers had bothered to search the net, they would have seen that M Douste-Blazy's question was perfectly legitimate. One could say that the number of Jews deported from Britain's Channel Islands was infinitesimal, but the deportees themselves were not infinitesimal. Nor was the number of Jews put to forced labor there by the Germans. It's embarrassing to see the French FM ridiculed for ignorance by people who thus display their own.

It's sad to see that journalists from Haaretz don't know history. There was deportation of British Jews from British territory. As a matter of fact, Jews were deported from the English Channel Islands that were occupied by Nazi Germany. Some journalists should be ashamed of their ignorance and not should not attack the French Foreign Minister. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-4-2002-25788.asp In September 1942, under German orders, the Channel Islands government made deportation lists of British passport holders and foreign nationals, while native Channel Islanders remained safe. The deportation of foreign-born Jews had started in April 1942. Four months later it was the turn of the British. Their lives were uprooted and some died, yet after the liberation the subject was closed and any mention of compensation ignored. The Channel Islands' war history was one of almost total collaboration with the Nazis. It has taken decades for the islands to admit their role in the Jewish deportations, which took place when Guernsey and Jersey absorbed Nazi Germany's anti-semitic laws into their own legal system. Today there is still shame about the issue, and the islands' governments are uneasy about revealing what happened during the second wave of deportations.

Maybe the french and their FM are not as stupid as some want to make us believe? The Nazi plans for the 'Final Solution', as known from the protocols of the Wannsee conference in Berlin in 1942 included the British Jews. Since the Germans occupied 'only' four Channel Islands, the overwhelming majority of British Jews were safe from deportation to the death camps, but this is not true for the Jews from the Channel Islands. The first were deported to Auschwitz in 1942, while others were later deported (in 1943) to camps in France and Germany. Even though the number of the deported and murdered Jews from Britain including the Channel Islands was small, their lives and names should be remembered. The President of one of the Island's Jewish Congregations wrote a small book on the history of the Island's Jews under the occupation (download for free as a pdf-file http://www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/edu/resources/pdf/cijews.pdf). I hope that the French FM's questions will lead the the inclusion of the Channel Island / British Jews memory in the new Yad VaShem Museum.

The French Foreign Minister is actually correct. The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans during WWII, and were only liberated on VE Day! During the occupation, more than a dozen Jews, mostly refugees from other parts of Europe, were rounded up by the local police, obediently obeying German orders, and sent for deportation to the death camps where many perished. At the same time, the island of Alderney was used as a labour camp and a fairly sizeable number of Jewish inmates perished there from the cruel conditions there.

While the French FM is guilty of dreadful misrepresentation of scale in comparing the British and French during WW II, he is absolutely correct that the British voluntarily deported entire communities of Jews to their deaths in the camps in 1940-1942. All three communities of the Channel Islands -- Guernsey, Aldernay and Sark, were captured by the Nazis for nearly two years. The collaboration of the British citizens in locating, rounding up and assisting in the deportation of the Jews to their deaths was as black a hsitory as any in Poland or Ukraine, including some of my relatives. To this day, no new community has taken hold.

He is simply judging by his own standards.

No Jews were deported from Britain, but the ban of repatriation of Jews to the Land of Israel was British contribution to the Holocaust. Even though it's unrealistic to believe, that all 6 mln. could find refuge in Israel, many could have been absorbed, probably, millions. For those, who don't know what I am talking about: in the thirties, when Jewish repatriation increased as the result of ascention of Hitler to the power in Germany, the Palestinian Arabs launched campaign of terror against Jews and British colonial authorities, something similar to the last intifada, though not of such scale. Britain used heavy measures to quell the intifada (hundreds of people were hanged, entire villages destroyed) and also launched a diplomatic initiative: the Royal commission headed by Lord Peel arrived to the Land of Israel and proposed the partition of the land. Here is the map of proposed partition: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/peelmap.html Zionists accepted the plan, Arabs rejected it. As the result, it was abandonned and British government headed by Lord Chamberlain adopted the so called "White Book", which effectively banned repatriation of Jews to Israel. This document was accepted in 1939, when Jews desperately needed the place of refuge: and Britain closed before Jews their own land, Land of Israel. As the result, millions of people, who could become citizens of their own state on their own land, who could build their lives, educate their children there, became ashes. As for the French FM, he probably doesn't know all this, if he doesn't know even that no Jews were deported from Britain. And I wonder how can he conduct foreign policy of such great and important country as France, which is very much involved into Middle Eastern affairs, if he doesn't even know simple historical facts, which all schoolchildren learn.

Yes Douste-Blazy was partially right. Jews (non-British but British citizens too) were deported in 1942 and 1943 to the Birebach concentration camp in Germany. Those were Jews living in the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Sark) occupied by Germany from 1941 till 1944. You can find many references about this period on the Internet It took a Proud French to finally tell the truth and restore our foreign minister honour. Vive la Republique, Vive la France

This is exact, some islands between GB and France was occuped by nazis. Guernesey and Jersey was anglo-normands!

Is that nobody actually asked him what he meant by it.I mean its a little obtuse at best,especially why he repeated it. He could have had too much Chateau Neuf de Pape before breakfast that morning...

In Finland we feel a big shame because we gave up ( i am not sure for the word) 8 Jews to deportation before Marechal Mannerheim stoped it. Still we can't go on this inhuman action. And worth, Finland was allied with German for a while against Soviets. But after we were in war against Germans as well. We can't say so much about France, there was only some men and women to fight against ennemy, others was too busy to sell and buy this " good french food" so we ,other countries have a bad food but a good reputation.

He's actually partially correct. Some of the smaller Islands arounfd England were occupied by the Nazis during WW II, and Jews were deported from these islands to concentration camps (with the help of the local authorities.

I am not so surprise about that, I know how stupid french people can be ( I lived there 25 years) And in our days there hatered for Jews make them blind and debilitated. We know also there jealousy to english and I think that this is all about.

two lessons 1 the woeful education of french cardiologists. 2 the strong dislike the french have for the british.in this case trying to make them part of the disgraceful french behaviour to its jewish citizens.

Hello to all, This man has no place in the Foreign Ministry, and definitely not at its head. This is just one of the totally absurd affectations of the French Government, giving positions to people based more on relation than on competence. He was better off as health minister. Sorry on my behalf to Israilis, Jews and Britons if they felt offended. This is at the level of the President Chirac when he insulted Brittish food... Peace, Karim.

London, why did you win 2012 olympic games organization over Paris?