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T.HE. JEWISH NEWS

Friday, February S, 190

The Soldiers
France Forgot

a

By Z. SZAJKOWSKI

)RDELL HULL, Secretary of
State of the United States,
commenting recently on the
Vichy government's mass de-
portation of alien and refugee
Jews, said: "The details of
the measures taken • are so
revolting and so fiendish in their
nature that they defy adequate de-
scription." How low the French
Quislings could stoop becomes even
more apparent when it is realized that
among those handed over to the
Nazis were many Jews who fought
bravely and cour.- wously as volunteers
in the ranks of the French Army.
Others, who were sent to labor camps
in the Sahara, have by now probably
been rescued by the American forces
in North Africa.
A large percentage of the Jews in
France were originally immigrants
from Central and Eastern Europe
who had never become citizens. They
did not wait for the official declara-
tion of war on Sept. 1, 1939, to volun-
teer for service with the French Army.

Thousands Enlisted

As early as 1938, during the tense
international situation which ended in
the Munich pact, thousands of them
enlisted. In the Paris branch alone of
the International League against Anti-
Semitism and Racism (LICA), con-
ducted by Bernard Lecache, 5,000
Jewish vcluntn_.-ers were enrolled.
Despite these evidences of patriot-
ism, anti-Jewish feeling ran high. In
September 1938, Jews were attacked
on the streets; windows in Jewish
stores were smashed. "The Jews want
the war to revenge themselves on Hit- .
ler," was the agitator's cry, and it
bras taken up even in the populated
labor section.
Extreme left labor circles as well as
fascist groups helped foster the agita-
tion, in order to discredit the govern-
=ment's foreign policy.
After the outbreak of the war the
next year, foreign Jews together with
non-Jewish immigrants once again
-waited in long queues in front of
.government offices and communal in-
-stitutions to be recruited, and it was
-then always a certainty that they
would fight.

10,000 Registered

All the Jewish parties and organiza-
tions, with the exception of the Jewish
Communists, called upon the alien
Jews to do ntheir duty and to volun-
teer in the French Army. Just in a
single office at 10, rue Lancry, opened
by the Union of Jewish Volunteers
of 1914-18 and the Federation of Jew-
ish Soc:e:ios, 10,000 Jewish volun-
teers. all of them non-citizens,
were registered in ten days. Yiddish
placards were posted in the govern-
malt registration offices and Yiddish
translators were seated there.
Native French Jews and those of
for::::n birth who had been natural-
ized did not, of course, have to register
as volunteers; they had already served
and were mobilized with other
Frenchmen.
Considerable confusion was caused
after the collapse of Poland by the
establishment on French soil of a
Polish Army-in-exile. Under the terms
of a Franco-Polish agreement, Polish
Jews volunteering for service with
the French Army were to he referred
to Polish authorities.

Offered a Choice

Many others were already in the
French Army, while those who had
volunteered prior to the agreement
but had not yet been called to the
colors were re-examined and offered a
choice of serving in either army.
Many of the Polish Jews had • been
living in Paris for so many years
that they had practically forgotten
the Polish language. More recent ar-
rivals had vivid memories of the
anti-Semitism under which they had
suffered. Rumors also spread that
there had been anti-Semitic outbreaks
in the divisions of the Polish Army in
France in which Jewish soldiers had
been cursed and beaten. The action.

of Polish consulate officials in de-
priving Jews living in Paris of their
Polish citizenship, not only before the
svar but for many months after the
invasion, likewise aggravated the sit-
uation. For all these reasons, Polish
Jews, quite naturally, preferred to
serve with the French forces.
Nevertheless, a considerable num-
ber of Jews joined the Polish ranks
in France. Some indication of their
number may be gained from the fact
that preparations were made early in
1940 to conduct a passover seder for
1,500 Jewish soldiers. (Because of the
tense situation at the front this seder
was never held.) Their ranks later
were swelled by Polish Jews from
Belgium who had escaped after the
Hitler invasion.

Pressure Exerted

Altogether, a total of approximate-
ly 60,000 Jews served in France; in-
cluding volunteers, native and nat-
uralized French Jews, and the men
who fought in the Polish and Czech
forces.
Men registered as volunteers on
the assumption that they would serve
in the regular French Army. Even
though no decree was published at the
outbreak of the war to the effect
that foreigners must volunteer (such
a decree was published later), moral
pressure was exerted at every turn.
The police stopped people in the
streets and not only asked for their
regular papers but also for evidence
that they had enlisted in the French
Army. This does not detract from the
fact that thousands of alien Jews
volunteered_ of their own free will
to fight for France.
These volunteers, however, were not
taken into the regular French Army
but were attached to the tragically
famous Foreign Legion, which France
has maintained since 1831 in her
North African colonies. Many legends
have sprung up about the Foreign
Legion.

Everyone Accepted

The Foreign Legion accepted almost
everyone who volunteered. Older men,
fathers of families, sickly men who
would have been rejected in the reg-
ular army registered to escape the
normal pressure on immigrants to
enlist. They were taken despite their
age or infirmity. German Jewish refu-
gees were also sent to the Foreign
Legion in Morocco on the ground that
it would be unwise for them to fight
on the Franco-German front.
Some regiments of the Foreign
Legion were established in France
proper for still other Jewish volun-
teers together with men from various
countries, including Italians, Ukrain-
ians and Spaniards. The officers,..
both commissioned and non-commis-
sioned, were almost all brought
over from the Foreign Legion in
Morocco. Because of them the Jewish
recruits had to undergo dreadful
things, for the Legion was ruled all
the time by violent anti-Semitism,
which let up a little only at the front.

Demanded Transfer

Among other insults, it was sneer-
ingly remarked to the Jews that they
had joined for the food. The volunteer
Legionnaires of the other countries,
especially the Italians who were
newly converted anti-Semites, like-
wise bullied the Jewish soldiers. It
was a frightful situation.
In the first World War Jewish vol-
unteers who were placed in the
Foreign Legion had demanded that
they be transferred to the regular
French Army, and the affair had as-
sumed the proportions of a minor re-
volt. In World War II, enforcement
service in the Foreign Legion instead
of the regular army similarly aroused
resentment among the Jewish volun-
eteers.
I should like t6 tell in greater de-
tails about the 12th Foreign Regiment
(12e R.E.I.) in which I fought at the
front.
Jewish volunteers from Paris were
sent either to Fort Van.cia near Lyon

A division of Legionnaires remained
in Valbonne at the end of the war and
withdrew fighting to Lyon; most
them were Jews.
The 13th demi-brigade was cern,
posed largely of Legionnaires from
Morocco, some of whom were Jews
long in the service. About fifty Jewish
refugees joined this outfit when it
was stationed near La Valbonne. The
unit fought in the battle of Narvik
and later was brought to England.
In the interim, France fell before the
Nazi onslaught. About 20 Jewish
Legionnaires remained in England to
join De Gaulle's army. The others re-
turned to France by way of Morocco,
where they were pitilessly treated
despite their valiant service.

(later to the neighboring town of
Satonet) or to Barcares at the sea-
shore near Perpignan. A camp had
been set up there before the war for
Spaniards of the Republican Army
who had escaped to France. Some of
these Spaniards, among them Jews
who had fought with the International
Brigade in Spain, volunteered for the
French Army. Communists refrained
from joining.
I was sent first to Vancia and then
transferred to La Valbonne, where
recruits had been trained in 1914-18.
Several times, anti-Semitic remarks
by a corporal or sergeant would lead
to unpleasant incidents. Less re-
straint was shown when the offenders
were Italian volunteers. Their insults
earned them a beating at the hands
of the all-Jewish 16th group of the
39th Company, stationed in the town
of Saint Maurice de Gourdains.

,

.

Serious Trouble

Serious trouble started when the
time came to form a regiment. It
seemed that the majority of the re-
cruits were Jewish immigrants and
that the regiment would therefore be
composed largely of Jews. This the
officers did not want. Many of us felt
that their action was inspired by anti-
Jewish motives.
Be that as it may, many Jewish re-
cruits weer taken from La Valbonne
and sent to Perpignan, where we were
joined by the Spanish volunteers. The
12th Regiment,• including about 30
percent Jews, was thus composed of
volunteers of various nationalities.
Allocation of the men, however, was
done in a needlessly painful fashion.
All the companies were assembled,
the Jewish soldiers called out of
rank, and most of them sent. to Bar-
cares. This left a terrible impression
on the remaining Jews.
At the head of the 12th Regiment
was Colonel Besson, a really friendly
man. We learned from some comrades
that before him many officers had re-
fused to work with the regiment
because of the large number of Jews
in it. Besson accepted. In the 22nd
and 23rd Regiments, which were
formed near Perpignan, at least three-
quarters of the men were Jews.

First Unit at Front

A few hundred Jewish recruits
from our company were sent to the
11th Regiment, which consisted large-
ly of non-Jews, long-serving Legion-
naires from Morocco. It was the first
regiment of the Legion to be at the
front, went through many hard
battles, and only a small number of
Legionnaires remained alive.

NEXT WEEK'S FEATURE

Experiences in Soviet Russia

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Editor, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

In this article, written exclusively
for The Jewish News, Mr. Smolar,
who has traveled throughout the
world for the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, describes his personal ex-
periences with Soviet officials when
he represented the J.T.A. in Russia.
His article relates how Russian.. offi-
cials put a stop to the activities of
some officials which reacted to the
detriment of Russian Jews.

This week's special feature article,
"The Soldiers France Forgot," by Z.
Szajkowski, is published in collabora-
tion with the Contemporary Jewish
Record, organ of the American Jew-
ish Committee. The author, who now
holds a fellowship in modern history
with the Yiddish Scientific Institute
(Yivo), endangered his chances of es-
cape from France by rescuing from
the Paris Yivo headquarters archical
material which he brought with him
to America.

Shipped to Narvik

The 6th Regiment served in Syria.
One battalion consisted of a thousand
volunteers, half of whom were Jews,
who were shipped from a point near,
Perpignan. With the exception of the
unit that went to Narvik, this regi-
ment was the only one to fight outside
France. In all other cases the Jewish
volunteers served and fought on
French soil.
The Legionnaires fought like heroes,
Giving details would seem like boast-
ing though the whole world knows
that the Foreign Legion was sent
everywhere into the amost dangerous
positions on the front where the re-
treating flank of the French Army had
to be defended. When General Francois
was called to testify as a witness at
the trial against Leon Blum and his
colleagues at Riom, he stated that he
had been sure only of the Foreign
Legion.
How many Jews died as heroes for
France will not be known until official
statistics have been published. In the
12th Regiment, in which I served, only
about 350 to 500 Legionnaires survived
out of the original complement of
5,000. Jewish comrades from the 23rd
Regiment assured me that only 1,000
remained alive of their original numb-
er. The 22nd Regiment suffered similar
heavy casulaties.

Describes Battle

The French journalist, Jean Monfils,
writing in the Vichy-controlled Paris
Soir on Sept. 10, 1940, gave the follow-
ing description of the part taken by
the Foreign Legion in the Battle of
Soissons, in which the 12th Regiment
fought:
Isolated in a dead city. There is
no more contact with the army,
which is retreating. The telephone
is cut, the bridges destroyed. Alone,
hidden in empty houses which they
soon will defend . . . The tanks
with the swastikas enter Soissons.
It seems that Soissons is abandon-
ed.
They fought from parlor to din-
ing400m, from the stairs to the
cellar, in the cellar itself; from the
chimney to the opening in the
stove; from the sidewalk of the
Place de la Republique to the right
side; and so on all over the entire
city, in the Faubourgs, on the
Boulevard Jeanne d'Arc, on the
Rue Chateau Thierry, in the fact-
ories hidden under abandoned
machines with revolver in hand.

Attacked Tanks

The tanks with the swastikas
moved over the city, slowly, the
machine guns aimed at each door
and each window. It was still not
over, There was still an epilogue.
The men attacked the tanks, broke
bottles of gasoline over them and
set them afire . . . The last answer
was on the Avenue de la Gare.
Legionnaires throw stones from
a six-story building upon the first
columns of the German infantry
which pass through Soissons. Only
after the death of its last defend-
ers, the Legionnaires, has the
French city fallen.
At the front the officers really treat-
ed the Jewish volunteers as men. Per
haps the common danger in the face
of death weakened their anti-Jewish
sentiments,---Besides, the Jewish volun-
teers fought valiantly, and the officers
frankly admitted it.

Some Given Help

After the Franco-German armistice,
however, the Vichy government ignor-
ed the Jewish volunteers. They were
left pretty much alone, at least for a
few months. The police permitted them
to live in the larger cities, from which
aliens were barred, allowed to work,
etc.
In Toulouse there was a union. of
former Jewish volunteers, which often

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