Paris Perspective #30: Eighty years since Nazi yellow star decree – Robert Ejnes
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On 29 May, 1942, the Nazi occupation of Northern France banned Jews from appearing in public without wearing a yellow star on their left breast. Paris Perspective looks back at this dark period in French history, while taking the temperature of the current situation regarding anti-Semitism in France and the political affiliations that represent the Jewish community.
Eighty years ago, French Jews over the age of six were given just over a week – until 7 June – to present themselves at police prefectures and mayors' offices to buy their yellow stars.
Now the infamous yellow star represents more than anti-Semitic persecution. It has also has become a symbol of anti-establishment resistance.
Nazi obsession with identifying “the hidden enemy” for propaganda purposes – and for stigmatisation and humiliation – was originally the brainchild of Hitler's chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels in 1938.
It was then embraced by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, who is credited with having orchestrated the Holocaust. It was first put into practice in Poland in 1939 by Reinhard Heydrich, who headed the Nazi Reich's central security office.
From the fall of France to the Nazis in 1940 to the decree of May 1942 – the eighth repressive order to be handed down by Germany – French Jews were already terrified, says Robert Ejnes, executive director of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
He tells Paris Perspective about his mother's experience as a 20-year-old Parisian who was forced to sew the yellow star onto her clothes.
"She was afraid – when she was riding on the metro, when she was walking in the streets – that somebody would come and check if [the star] was well sewn on," Ejnes says.
He explains that the decree on was the first step that led to the infamous "Rafle de Vel d’Hiv” in July, when thousands of French Jews were rounded up at a Paris velodrome and transported to extermination camps.
"That's where my grandparents were arrested and deported," he recalls.
For Ejnes, that memory comes with a lot of emotion.
"It was a sign of discrimination put on Jews the same way it had been put with the 'rouelle' in France in the in the 14th century. So it only recalls bad memories," he says.
If you refused to accept the stigma of being singled out for being Jewish, you were arrested. If your star was covered by a coat or another item of clothing, you were arrested. Those people very often did not survive, Enjes says.
"If you read the eighth directive, you see that it had to be sewn very tightly on to jackets, it was not just a sign or a pin that you could move from one coat to the other."
If you had several coats, you had to buy several stars.
"If you wanted to change [coat] every day, you had to buy as many as you needed. You had to buy it," Enjes emphasises.
Collaborators denounce Jewish families
And then there were the denunciations of Jews to German authorities.
"My grandfather was denounced because he had a store on the rue du Faubourg St Antoine, and he had an apartment," Enjes recalls.
At the same time, many people also helped Jews escape – "in the countryside, very often families" – but history is not black and white. There were repercussions for anyone found helping Jews.
"They could be arrested as well; they really took risks with their own life ... they could be deported, they could be killed - not to be seen again," Enjes says.
"It's important to understand this – the psychology, the sociology of the country – at a time of war."
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Yet the collaborationist Vichy administration, south of the Nazi-occupied zone, refused to make Jews wear the yellow stars.
"We don't know their motivation," Ejnes says. "We don't know whether they were afraid of the ideology or whether they were afraid that the population would definitely not accept it."
Ejnes reminds us that not all countries accepted Nazi rules. In Denmark, the king said he would wear the yellow star should his subjects be obliged to wear it.
The same in Morocco. "[The king] said all his subjects were not Jews or Muslims or Christians. They're all Moroccans and nobody under his kingship will wear a yellow star to discriminate one against the other."
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Anti-Semitism in France in 2022
Fast forward to 2022, and anti-Semitism remains a heated subject in France.
The death of a young Jewish man – Jeremey Cohen, who was killed by a tram while running away from a mob – recently pushed religious crime to the centre of France's presidential debate just days ahead of voting.
The 2018 killing of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in Paris still resonates within France's Jewish community.
Investigating police must prove an anti-Semitic motive behind any attack, Ejnes says, adding the law works differently in the UK.
"If something like this happens [in Britian], there is a presumption of anti-Semitism" and lawyers have to prove the motivation was not anti-Semitic, he says.
"In France ... since 2003, 12 people have died ... for the only reason they were Jewish.
"Among them a young man who was killed in Paris, and the four who was were killed in Toulouse [10 years ago]. And the four that were killed in the Hyper Cacher [supermarket]."
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Political representation
In the wake of French President Emmanual Macron's presidential victory and in the run up to legislative elections in June, how is the Jewish community represented among the highly polarised political parties in France?
To answer that question, the executive director of CRIF needs to explain the role of his organisation.
"CRIF is the umbrella organisation of Jewish institutions in France; we are not a political organisation," he says.
"Our job is to represent the Jews within all the constituents of the French society – including the political constituents, the presidency, the government, the members of parliament – but also with other religions, with the intellectuals so that we carry the voice of the Jewish community.
"We do not pretend to rule or to give indications as to political votes as to how the French Jewish population should vote. The only thing we say regularly to Jews that that people should not vote for the extremes.
"The reason we say that is our long experience. We know that whenever the extremes come to power, it's not good for the Jews, and it's not good for the country."
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Shared values
Almost 20 years ago, former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon lambasted France as being the most anti-Semitic country in Europe. He implemented a fast-track "return and settle" option for French Jews to move to Israel.
However, the response from the Jewish community to Sharon was: “We are French first, Jewish second." Does that still ring true in 2022?
"Definitely," Ejnes says. "The Jews of France were accused in 1967 and 1968 of having a double allegiance to France and Israel. We are tied to Israel for historical reasons.
"For 2,000 years Jews have been chased from Jerusalem ... we definitely have ties to the State of Israel. But we are French. [It's like] somebody who loves his father and his mother – we can love both.
"French Jews are French. We are the French Jewish community with a definite French culture, and share the same values of liberty, equality, fraternity, and we fight for it.
"Nothing will change that."
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.
Recorded and edited by Nicolas Doreau.
Full Interview: 80th anniversary of Nazi 'Yellow Star' decree in France – Robert Ejnes
Robert Ejnes is the executive director of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), based in Paris.
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