The Historical Future

"On the day after the German occupation I had the most disagreeable of business to do in Vichy, accompanied by Maurice Brener because I never go to the ministries anymore without a witness. The day before I left Marseilles, the evening of the 7th, Darquier de Pellepoix put out on TSF radio a racist bulletin that made me dubious about the future. For a moment I was hesitant about leaving ... But we have to keep fighting and not desert the fort of the agencies the moment they are in danger. I cannot become now what I have never been, someone who runs away. So Daruier, with all the eloquence of an excited street vendor, announced new measures against the Jews who have not yet been neutralized by the Statut ... So should we now come out powerfully, or be so assimilated as to escape notice? ... 

• 1. Stamping the word "Jew" on our identity cards; 
• 2. Measures to be taken against Christian accomplices; 
• 3. Dissolution of the youth organizations in the UGIF. ... 

In the future we are promised further threats: wearing a badge, as in the occupied zone, administrative and political measures, legal action against mixed marriages. ... Anxiety swells in our circles. Will this war last long enough for all of u s to be deported to Poland? I hope it won't. From now on no one can hold a grudge against the Jews of France since we must live as if we were suspects during the Terror."
Raymond-Raoul Lambert: Diary of a Witness, 1940--1943; The ordeal of the Jews of France during the Holocaust

Deportation of Jews holding foreign citizenship from the Austerlitz station in Paris, 1941: Yad Vashem

The Terror has returned. And yes, Messr. Lambert's fears were most certainly realized; Vichy France took with huge alacrity to the Nazi Final Solution, going out of their way to accommodate the most vital work of the Third Reich in annihilating six million of the Jews of Europe. Their numbers have been more than replaced all these generations after Europe chastised itself and promised it would "never forget", with greater numbers of Muslims from all around the world of Islam [the ummah] who have brought with them their own viral brand of anti-Semitism.

Now, French Jewish life has been disrupted by fear as the community has been reminded that no one can predict the future with any degree of accuracy. The head of Marseille's Israelite Consistory, Zvi Amman has with heavy heart recommended that Jews of Marseille  abandon their traditional custom of wearing kippot in public in the interests of not bringing immediate attention to the fact that they are Jews. Attacks against Jews by raving Jew-haters from the Islamist tradition of detestation and violence have once again risen.

The base of the Statue de la République is defaced with a swastika as a protest in support of Palestinians turns anti-Semitic, Paris, July 26, 2014. By Etienne Laurent/EPA/Corbis.

"As soon as we are identified as Jewish we can be assaulted and even risk death. But faced with an exceptional situation, we have to take exceptional measures. It causes me such pain to come to this conclusion but I do not want anyone to die in Marseille because they had a kippah on their head." But many other Jewish leaders among whom stands out Haim Korsia, the chief Rabbi of France have raised their objections that the removal of kippot is "tantamount to admitting that wearing a kippah is a provocation". Jews, stated Rabbi Korsia firmly, must present a "united front".

A French soldier stands guard at a synagogue in Lille, France, January 12, 2015. From PhotoPQR/Voix du Nord/Newscom.

Infamously, the Jews of Germany who had assimilated into the culture could not believe they would be singled out for criminal racist discrimination resulting in death camps, their ashes rising from the crematoria to make the fields and agricultural products of the continent fecund with their attributes as human beings.

Historically Jews, united in fear at the prospect of the bleak future before them in Europe, presented that kind of "united front", but as numerous as they were, those who were enthusiastic about ridding the world of the presence of Jews were far more numerous, equipped militarily, politically and socially to proceed with their genocidal intent, and they prevailed. Jewish emigrants from Europe to Israel have now increased in a measure reflecting the new realization that their lives are in increasing peril, that their children's futures no longer can be assured in Europe.

Two men perform a quenelle in western France in 2014. Jean-Sebastien Evrard/AFP/Getty Images

In France there were a documented 7,086 anti-Semitic attacks against French Jews in 2014. That number represents 51 percent of all racist events registered, according to the French Interior Ministry of an ethnic demographic that represents a mere one percent of the population at under 500,000 population as compared to a Muslim population in France numbering about five million. French President Francois Hollande had taken umbrage at the sentiment expressed by  Zvi Ammar, stating it is "intolerable that in our country citizens should feel so upset and under assault because of their religious choice that they would conclude that they have to hide."

Indeed it is intolerable, and sometimes religion is not a choice when it is an integral portion of one's inheritance, ethnic group, culture and intellectual makeup. So, then, 75 years following the unspeakable dystopia of a fascist France eager and willing to fall into step with Nazi Germany's plan of Jewish extermination, French Jews are once more on the alert, and they are beginning to leave France as an expression of their deep existential concern. Perhaps there really is nothing new under the sun, and history does indeed repeat itself.

A demonstrator at a pro-Palestinian rally throws a rock toward riot police during a protest in Paris, June 19, 2014. By Thibault Camus/A.P. Images.