The Holocaust in France

The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution began in 1940, and culminated in deportations of Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Poland. The deportations started in 1942 and lasted until July 1944. In 1940, 340,000 Jews, about two-thirds French citizens and one-third refugees from Nazi Germany, were living in continental France. More than 75,000 Jews were deported to death camps, where about 72,500 were killed.

Most of these Jews were foreigners : 25 000 from Poland, 7,000 from Germany, 4,000 from Russia, 3,000 from Romania, 3,000 from Austria, 1,500 from Greece, 1,500 from Turkey, 1,200 from Hungary. French Jews numbered around 24,000 (6,500 French Jews from Metropole, 1,500 from Algeria, 8,000 children of foreign parents, 8,000 Jews naturalized).

Antisemitism was prevalent throughout Europe at the time. As in other German-occupied and aligned states, the Nazis in France relied to a considerable extent on the co-operation of local authorities to carry out what they called the Final Solution. The government of Vichy France and the French police organized and implemented the roundups of Jews. Although the vast majority of the deported Jews were killed, the overall survival rate of the Jewish population in France was up to 75%, which is one of the highest survival rates in Europe.