Pierre Laval had to reach back into the Middle Ages to justify himself. Said he: "I am only applying to Jews the same treatment prescribed centuries ago [the Inquisition] by the Catholic Church."
Laval said he had no intention of extending the anti-Jewish laws of his German masters (particularly the wearing of the yellow Star of David) to Unoccupied France. But he insisted: "No man and nothing can sway me from my determination to rid France of foreign Jews and send them back where they originated."
If Jews died in sealed boxcars and concentration camps, that made little difference to Laval. It...
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