Tagged Vichy government

How the late French president Jacques Chirac started France’s reckoning with the Holocaust

PARIS - MARCH 11: French President Jacques Chirac attends a media conference for Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (not shown) in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace March 11, 2004 in Paris, France. Prime Minister Qurei is on an official visit to Paris. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
September 26, 2019 / Liam Hoare, JTA

VIENNA, Austria (JTA) — Jacques Chirac, the former French president who died on September 26 at age 86, had only been in office two months when, on July 16, 1995, he delivered a speech that began a vital reckoning with one of the darkest aspects of France’s recent history.… Read more »

6 reasons why Macron’s speech about the Holocaust in France was groundbreaking

Emmanuel Macron speaks at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv Holocaust roundup in Paris, July 16, 2017. (Kamil ZihnIoglu/AFP/Getty Images)
July 17, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

  PARIS (JTA) — It wasn’t the first time that a French president acknowledged his nation’s Holocaust-era guilt, but Emmanuel Macron’s speech Sunday was nonetheless groundbreaking in format, content and style. Delivered during a ceremony at the Vel d’Hiv Holocaust memorial monument exactly 75 years after French police officers rounded up 13,152… Read more »