Today marks the eighty‐first anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, a tragedy that took the lives of nearly 13,152 Jews. This was the first time that Vichy authorities pursued all Jews in a roundup, not only the men, thus catching many women and children off‐guard.
Contrary to popular misbelief, Vichy authorities had a good deal of autonomy. As this paper notes, there were some police officers who were very reluctant to arrest Jews, offering them warnings and giving them chances to hide, flee, or gather whatever they needed. Most police officers, however, were not so generous:
In contrast to those who tried to help or warn Jews, others took advantage of those who were arrested, turned Jews in hiding in to the authorities, or carried out their duties of arresting Jews zealously. Some policemen were angry when there was no answer at the doors they knocked on, and one said, “If we only had the necessary authorization, we would ferret out these Jews who think they can saddle themselves on us.”
Some policemen did so anyway, and broke down the doors of apartments when no one opened the door. One woman at home alone with her two young children was afraid to open the door when the police knocked early in the morning, for her husband had already been arrested and was held at Pithiviers to be deported to Auschwitz. When the police broke down the door she picked her children and jumped out of the five story high window, killing all three of them.
In addition to over‐zealous police officers, regular citizens became informers who betrayed Jews in hiding. A report from an anonymous informer said the Vistuck family hid in a neighbor’s house, probably giving the neighbors their milk coupons in exchange for letting their family stay.
The report said, “Most Jews hid in their neighbors’ houses, though some went considerable distances from their homes. The Vistuks, for example, who live at 76 Rue de Bondy, were not at home when the police called for them.
Yet after their disappearance their milk ration continues to be collected from the diary on the ground floor of the building, where they are registered. The fact that their supply of milk is fetched for them by a Frenchwoman suggests that they must be hiding nearby.”
Reports like these show how there were people who were actively collaborating with [the Third Reich] and Vichy helping them to achieve their anti‐Semitic goals of expelling Jews out of France.
Despite the kindness of some and the callousness of others, the majority of policemen and French civilians were indifferent towards these roundups, exhibiting the attentisme “wait‐and‐see” attitude. No policemen refused to arrest the Jews and only one, possibly two, resigned afterwards as a result of the roundup.
Instead, according to Levy and Tillard, the police carried out their duties with “complacent calm,” had “good behavior,” and were “confidence‐inspiring” to the Jews who were being arrested. It was more common for the police to be stoic and methodologically work their way through the arrests they had to make.
A nurse talking to the guards outside the gymnasium at Japy said, “Almost all of them said that they would never have joined the mobile guard if they had known they would be given this kind of duty. They admitted that their orders to were shoot if necessary.” Even though many of the policemen and other workers instrumental for the operation, claimed they did not want to do those jobs, they did so anyway with little to no dissent.
It was this attentisme attitude, this apathy, which allowed the roundup to happen and for almost 13,000 innocent Jews to be arrested and deported.
In the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup there were clearly those who actively aided Jews, those who actively collaborated with the Germans and Vichy, and those who simply did nothing and observed what went on. Many Jews encountered people who fell into all three of these categories throughout the roundup.
[…]
In addition, one survivor said that as they were walking through the streets after being arrested, “people stared at us, but I could not make out what they were thinking. Their faces seemed blank and indifferent. At Place Voltaire there was a small crowd, and one woman started shouting: ‘I’m glad! I’m glad! Let them all go to the devil!’ But she was the only one. The children clung to me tighter. As we passed the group, a man turned to the woman who had shouted and said, ‘It’ll be our turn next. Poor things.’ She blushed and walked away. The policemen told us to walk faster.”
(Emphasis added.)
A tragedy like this could easily happen in Imperial America today, thanks to the hyperindividualist mentality that (neo)liberalism has always nurtured.
And since I am sure that at least one reader was reminded of the quote, I may as well help your memory and tell you that it was from Martin Niemöller.
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