The Destruction of the Jews of France

Hitler who had not expected to conquer France and the Low Countries in six weeks, tackled the problems of occupation as they came without preconceived ideas.There were no demographical plans for the shifting of populations, as in the case of Poland, and for a time France was scarcely considered in connection with the Jewish problem in the light of National Socialist theory.

With France divided into two zones the Occupied area and Vichy, Hitler intervened in an action that treated the Vichy zone as a dumping ground for unwanted Jews from Germany.

However, this spurred the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) now tried to bring the Vichy Government into line with the regulations as enforced against the Jews in the Reich.

Joyfully seconded by Ambassador Abetz and his diplomatic assistants, Schleier and Zeitschel, Heydrich began to install the machinery of the “Reichsvereinigung” and the “Judendezernat”, that is to say a single body to represent all Jewish interests, handcuffed to a special police department, through whom alone the authorities could be approached.
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