The anti-Semitic attitudes of French leaders also influenced the passing of anti-Semitic legislation. According to Judt, anti-Semitism was fashionable in the 1930s and French leaders carried this attitude into the German occupation. The Jews placed their trust in individuals such as Danecker, Darlan, Vallet, Laval, and Petan yet all these men exhibited anti-Semitic views and used them as a moral justification to implement legislation against the Jews. Helene Berr writes about this betrayal when she denounces the actions of Darnard, the new Commissioner for the Maintenance of Order. She writes how he has become a pawns of the Germans, able to kill anyone under the guise of protection. There is now nothing that the Jews are able to do to help better their situation because those in power, those who they could have appealed to, are the ones discriminating against them.
The biggest betrayal for the Jews, however, was that the French people enabled the oppression of Jews through their passive compliance. This resulted from their lack of knowledge about the Jewish situation. The realization dawns on Helene and she writes that “other folk do not know, do not even imagine, the suffering of other men, the evil that some of them inflict.” Many just could not grasp the severity of the atrocities …show more content…
However, this desire for sovereignty exposed the deep-rooted anti-Semitic views of many of the French people. Moreover, the passive compliance of non-Jews due to their lack of understanding allowed for greater persecution of the Jews. Non-Jews did not understand. It is the combination of these reasons that resulted in the betrayal of the Jews by their country for the Germans alone could not have committed the atrocities in France to the scale that they occurred. It was France's fault that so many Jews died and the backlash of these actions would be felt for years to
The biggest betrayal for the Jews, however, was that the French people enabled the oppression of Jews through their passive compliance. This resulted from their lack of knowledge about the Jewish situation. The realization dawns on Helene and she writes that “other folk do not know, do not even imagine, the suffering of other men, the evil that some of them inflict.” Many just could not grasp the severity of the atrocities …show more content…
However, this desire for sovereignty exposed the deep-rooted anti-Semitic views of many of the French people. Moreover, the passive compliance of non-Jews due to their lack of understanding allowed for greater persecution of the Jews. Non-Jews did not understand. It is the combination of these reasons that resulted in the betrayal of the Jews by their country for the Germans alone could not have committed the atrocities in France to the scale that they occurred. It was France's fault that so many Jews died and the backlash of these actions would be felt for years to