Jews in Marseille (1939-1942), from Refuge to Trap

Jews in Marseille (1939-1942), from Refuge to Trap The 1943 Marseille Roundup and the Destruction of the Old Port [1] Conference Guide by Renée Dray-Bensousan [2]

A multicultural community composed of Comtadin, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jews

The Jewish community in Marseille comprised 10,000 individuals, within an estimated Jewish population in France ranging from 250,000 to 300,000 Jews. This community, more than half of which is foreign, is multicultural and not particularly political compared to the Jews in Paris. The Comtadins, [3] Jews of the French Papal Estates, [4] have been there for an extended time ; they consider themselves fully French, having deep roots in the country. Many have been de-Judaized. The Jewish-Spanish Sephardic Levantines arrived in successive waves from the Ottoman Empire, particularly after the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, [5] and came from Italy as well. The “North African” Sephardic Jews (Tunisians, Moroccans, Algerians) are numerous and are married to Comtadins. The Ashkenazi Jews are comprised of Alsatian Jews who arrived after the War of 1870, [6] along with Germans and individuals from Central and Eastern Europe. There will be more of them because of the debacle.

Refuge in the so-called free zone

Since 1933, Germans, and later Austrians, arrived ; many of them were affluent Jews. They lived in the villas of Sanary-sur-Mer, in the Var département. France, a xenophobic nation, arrested foreigners and put them in the Milles camp. [7] Marseille was crowded with many refugees and evacuees from all parts during this chaotic migration. In August 1940, American journalist Varian Fry arrived in Marseille with a list of 200 names and 3,000 dollars. [8] He stayed in the city for a month. Delegated by the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) [9] to organize the rescue and escape of writers, artists, scholars, and political figures threatened by Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco, he managed to help 1,200 individuals depart before being expelled from the country in 1941.

The law of September 20, 1940 [10] decreed that there was a “surplus of foreigners, affecting the national economy.” Jewish charities such as the JOINT (Joint Distribution Committee), the AIP (Association of Practicing Israelites), [11] the OSE (Children’s Relief Organization), and the ORT (Organization, Reconstruction, Work), and non-Jewish organizations such as the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) provide aid to the refugees. Jewish organizations are subsequently forced to merge into the UGIF (General Union of Israelites of France). [12]

The activities in the port of Marseille plummeted, leading to the cancellation of some routes. The war did not stop maritime traffic, which resumed from late 1940 until November 11, 1942 : most notably the sea routes to Algeria, Morocco, Palestine via the Suez Canal, and even to Shanghai. Legal emigration paths for those seeking exile are evolving based on the countries at war. The HICEM, [13] with financial support from the JOINT, had permission to send ships to the United States, Mexico (this was the case of Jewish-German writer Anna Seghers), [14] the Dominican Republic, or to Cuba, via Casablanca and Lisbon. Some even went as far as Shanghai before the maritime route was closed. The Eridan ship, on which the Adler family embarked in 1941, was forced to turn back from Dakar, as the Indochina route was blocked. The HICEM also facilitated departures through Spain and Portugal. Despite numerous difficulties, this organization effectively facilitated the emigration 20,000 individuals.

The Trap

The Jewish community is deeply troubled by the implementation of antisemitic policies. One such example is the second anti-Jewish Law, which resulted in widespread unemployment among Jews due to economic and professional Aryanization. Another instance is the law enacted on October 4, 1940, which requires the internment of foreign Jews in designated camps.

Additionally, the reversal of the Crémieux Decree [15] on October 7, 1940, has further exacerbated their distress. Twenty percent of Jews in Marseille are classified as indigenous. The CGQJ (Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs) [16] is established by Vichy in March 1941 to oversee the implementation of these measures. Jews are required to participate in a census in June 1941 and are also required to declare their assets to facilitate economic Aryanization. Jews who are loyal to France declare themselves out of civic duty. Chief Rabbi Hirschler organizes aid for the community. Non-Jewish associations like Cimade, a Protestant organization, and the Quakers, provide assistance to Jews who have lost their jobs due to the Statute on Jews. The ORT teaches them manual skills to help them find artisanal work. Others enroll in GTEs (foreign worker groups). The OSE shelters children.

On July 2, 1942, an agreement between Vichy general secretary René Bousquet, Nazi SS general Carl Oberg, and Nazi Security Police commander Helmut Knochen regarding the deportation of foreign Jews puts an end to legal emigration. At Les Milles Camp, foreign Jews are detained, and women and children are separated from men. The camp serves as an assembling and screening center, an internment camp, and a transit point for sending Jews to the Drancy or Compiègne camps. Hotels such as the Bompard and the Terminus are repurposed for this operation. The antisemitic press is established in Marseille. The “Émancipation nationale” a newspaper (by Doriot) [17] fuels antisemitism by publishing caricatures.

With the invasion of the unoccupied zone, Marseille becomes a mousetrap. After November 11, 1942, the Germans enter Marseille. In December 1942, the word “JEW” is stamped onto identity documents. The Gestapo and the Milice [18] hunt down Jews.

The roundup and the destruction of the Old Port

The Marseille roundup

Following attacks on soldiers, the Germans seek retaliation. They push Vichy authorities to evacuate the old port. Between January 22-29, 1943, numerous police operations took place in various parts of Marseille. 400,000 identity checks were carried out by law enforcement. In the Old Port, City Hall, Saint Jean, and Panier districts, 25,000 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes. 12,000 were taken to the Fréjus camp... Around 6,000 Jews and non-Jews were screened by a commission at Les Baumettes. [19] Suspects were sent to the Arenc train station for deportation by French police and German soldiers, then to the Compiègne concentration camp. Of the 20,000 rounded up, 5,000 were allowed to return to Marseille.

1,650 people, including 782 Comtadin, Levantine, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jews were handed over by the French police, and were sent in cattle cars to the Compiègne, Drancy, and Sobibor camps. One in five Jews was deported from Marseille.

870 young people were deported to Sachsenhausen. [20]

“80 years ago, Marseille’s city center was the hub of the ’Old Port Roundup”. Planned between January 13 and 14, 1943 by French and Nazi authorities, Operation Sultan was launched on January 22. 10,000 to 12,000 French police officers, under the supervision of 4,000 German SS officers, initiated the assault on the Opéra district and its environs. In this first phase, it was the Jewish community that was targeted.”

“Marseille received the reinforcement of 12,000 officers from the French municipal government, including 1,200 inspectors, fifteen squadrons of Mobile Reserve Groups (GMR), [21] relocated from Lyon, Paris or Toulouse.”

Destruction of the Old Port

The neighborhood of Vieux-Port was exploded using dynamite by the Wehrmacht German military. 2,000 houses were destroyed, according to the demolition perimeter of the Beaudoin plan [22]. Streets disappeared.

Testimonies of Gabriel Benichou and Francine Champlon :

Gabriel Bénichou was born in Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1927. He studied at the Lycée Saint-Charles in Marseille, where his sister lived. His parents came to visit them, then returned to Algeria. He did not join his brother on vacation in Algeria, as he needed to take an English exam. As a

boarding student, he often stayed at the school because of the roundups. That Thursday, he snuck out to visit his sister. On April 8, 1943, the Gestapo knocked on his door. He was imprisoned at the Saint-Pierre prison, transferred to Drancy, then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on convoy N°57, on July 18, 1943. He was one of the few survivors of the death march. He was one of the Warsaw Ghetto’s “cleaners,” [23] before ending up at the Dachau camp, where he once again took part in the death marches before being liberated.

Francine Champlon

The family dispersed during the exodus, and some were unable to cross the demarcation line, [24] as the Occupied Zone was forbidden to Jews. In Marseille, in April 1941, the teacher asked if there were any Jews in the class. When the time came to declare oneself Jewish, the family had to obey Marshal Pétain. In November 1942, with the occupation of the so-called free zone, the family tried to leave Marseille. On January 22, 1943, two French inspectors entered the apartment and asked for their identity cards. Her mother made a fuss about being a war widow. The inspector told her to get dressed. Glancing at the papers, the inspector, who had come for another name, spared them. But part of the family had been arrested and taken to the Compiègne and Sobibor camps. They were very scared. They managed to leave Marseille.

Gabriel Benichou. L’adolescence d’un juif d’Algérie, L’Harmattan, 2004, 182 pages.

“At Compiègne, on March 8, 1943, 804 Jews from Marseille were transferred to Drancy. From there, two convoys, on March 23 and 25, took the Jews from Marseille to the Sobibor extermination camp. They were all murdered there, and none returned.”

See “Gabriel Bénichou, a Jew from Algeria” https://www.cercleshoah.org/spip.php ?article133

-Translated from the French and annotated by Vasti Cruz, Scripps College

Edited by Julin Everett, Scripps College.

Les Juifs à Marseille (1939-1942), du refuge au piège ; la rafle de Marseille en 1943 et la destruction du vieux port.

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