CIMADE - French Group Saved 10,000 Marseilles Jews Boycotts Zionisation of Holocaust

Pastor Marc Donadille with his wife and children. Donadille worked with CIMADE, a Protestant movement to save the Jews of southern France by smuggling them to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. France, between 1939 and 1943.

'Righteous' French Group Boycotts Jewish Event

Holocaust Rescuers Object to Memorial's 'Pro-Israel' Slant

By JTA

Madelaine Barot of Cimade

Published February 12, 2013.


The deportation of foreign born Jewish men in occupied Paris was carried on May 14 1941.  Summons were sent to Czech, Austrian, and Polish Jews.  They were instructed by the French prefecture of police to come to specific locations in the capital in order to have their papers examined. Approximately 5000 foreign born Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 40 reported to the various assembly points. Once arrived, they were forbidden to leave.  The detainees were put on buses and driven to the Gare d'Austerlitz train station and immediately boarded onto four special trains bound for the internment camps of Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers in the Loiret near Orleans.


Paris — A French organization that saved Jews during the Holocaust has declined to attend a commemoration because it was organized by pro-Israel Jews. 

The Marseille branch of CIMADE, a French Protestant group established in 1939, declined to attend the region’s main memorial ceremony for Jewish Holocaust victims because of the pro-Israel attitude of CRIF, the umbrella group representing French Jewish communities, which organized the event together with the municipality.

Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg, one of those who insists on conflating the holocaust with Israel - demands that the Zionist anthem Hatikvah is played, even though the victims of the holocaust were overwhelmingly anti-Zionist

The values that led CIMADE to save Jews make the group "equally committed to oppose the colonial, discriminatory and bellicose policy of Israel with regards to the Palestinians," CIMADE regional deputies Françoise Rocheteau and Jean-Pierre Cavalie wrote in a letter to the local CRIF branch on Dec. 21. It also said CIMADE was determined to fight "apartheid."

Boycott Israel Picket

The letter, which was published online on Feb. 11 by a group which promotes a boycott of Israel, was a reply to an invitation extended by CRIF to CIMADE to attend the 70th commemoration on Jan. 20 of the deportation and subsequent murder of thousands of local Jews.

Marseille had a Jewish population of 39,000 in 1939, according to Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People. Only 10,000 remained after the Holocaust. CIMADE organized "vital relief and later resistance" in connection with the murders, according to Yad Vashem, and helped smuggle Jews to safety. Yad Vashem named Madeleine Barot, who headed CIMADE during the Holocaust, a Righteous among the Nations in 1988. She passed away seven years later.

"We understand our positions may appear unacceptable, making us unwelcome at your commemoration," the CIMADE representatives wrote. "We cannot keep silent on our convictions but do not wish to cause a scandal."

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