Xavier Vallat
Encyclopedia
Xavier Vallat French politician, was Commissioner-General for Jewish Question
s in the wartime Vichy collaborationist government
, and was sentenced after World War II to ten years in prison for his part in the persecution of French Jews.
into a family of conservative Catholics
. In his youth he was active in Catholic organisations and joined the monarchist
Action Française
, the most important group on the extreme right of French politics. He became a teacher in Catholic schools before joining the French Army. In World War I he was severely wounded, losing his left leg and right eye. He was elected to the National Assembly
for the Ardèche
in 1919 as an "independent", who supported the National Bloc
. He was defeated in 1924, re-elected in 1928
still as an "independent", and then served until the Assembly was suspended in 1940. He took membership however after the 1936 elections
in the Republican Federation
which was moving increasingly to the right.
In the 1930s Vallat was a leading representative of the Catholic, anti-Semitic
extreme right in French politics. He was also anti-Protestant
and anti-Masonic, arguing that Jews, Protestants and Masons were all part of a plot against Catholic France. He was violently opposed to liberalism
, socialism
and communism
. Unlike many on the far right, however, Vallat did not favour restoration of the monarchy, and he was notably anti-German despite his sympathy for fascism
. He favoured the project for a Latin Bloc of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
In 1936 Léon Blum
, a Jewish Socialist, became Prime Minister of France
. Vallat made a series of personal rhetorical attacks in Blum, saying that "For the first time this ancient Gallo-Roman land will be governed by a Jew." Vallat was accused by the left of responsibility for the physical attack on Blum by a right-wing mob in the streets of Paris which occurred not long after this speech.
occupation of France in June 1940, Vallat supported the rise to power of Marshall Philippe Pétain
at head of a collaborationist regime based in Vichy
. In March 1941, he was appointed as head of the Commissariat-General for Jewish Questions, a body set up to implement the anti-Semitic laws enacted by Pétain's government. In this position he oversaw the "Aryan
isation" of the French economy, education system, civil service and professions, and the enforcement of laws requiring all Jews to be registered with the police. As the historian Robert Paxton
has demonstrated, these laws were passed by the Vichy regime on its own initiative and not under German pressure, as both Pétain and Vallat claimed at their trials after the war.
Although he was a zealous anti-Semite, Vallat was also a French patriot, and he became increasingly angry at the refusal of the Germans to reward Vichy's co-operation with a less restrictive occupation regime. He was particularly critical, as a veteran, of the German refusal to release almost two million French prisoners-of-war. As a result, the German Ambassador to Vichy, Otto Abetz
, demanded that Pétain dismiss Vallat, which he did in May 1942. This meant that it was Vallat's successor, Louis Darquier de Pellepoix
, who oversaw most of French co-operation with the German deportation of more than 70,000 French Jews to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, where most of them were killed.
Vallat remained a supporter of Vichy's policies, however, and in June 1944, when the Allied armies had already landed in Normandy
, he was appointed head of the Vichy Radio following the assassination of Philippe Henriot
by the Resistance
. He broadcast regular anti-Semitic tirades until the Allies occupied Vichy in August.
, be disqualified because he was Jewish. He denied direct responsibility for the deportations of the French Jews, claiming that his policies had saved more than half of the Jews from deportation. He falsely claimed that Vichy's anti-Jewish laws had been enacted on German orders. Vallat was sentenced to ten years in prison: the court said he received a relatively lenient sentence in the light of his service in World War I.
Vallat was released on parole in 1949 and amnestied in 1954. He returned to anti-Semitic agitation, although he found few followers in postwar France. From 1962 to 1966 he was editor of the extreme right-wing journal Aspects de la France.
When Vallat died in January 1972, the Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld created a sensation by arriving at his funeral with a large wreath in the shape of a yellow Star of David
, the symbol that French Jews had been forced to wear by the Nazis (although this measure had in fact been opposed by the Vichy government and was not enforced in the Vichy-controlled zone).
Jewish Question
The Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...
s in the wartime Vichy collaborationist government
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, and was sentenced after World War II to ten years in prison for his part in the persecution of French Jews.
Until World War II
Vallat was born in the department of VaucluseVaucluse
The Vaucluse is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.- History :Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes...
into a family of conservative Catholics
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. In his youth he was active in Catholic organisations and joined the monarchist
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
, the most important group on the extreme right of French politics. He became a teacher in Catholic schools before joining the French Army. In World War I he was severely wounded, losing his left leg and right eye. He was elected to the National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
for the Ardèche
Ardèche
Ardèche is a department in south-central France named after the Ardèche River.- History :The area has been inhabited by humans at least since the Upper Paleolithic, as attested by the famous cave paintings at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The plateau of the Ardeche River has extensive standing stones ,...
in 1919 as an "independent", who supported the National Bloc
National Bloc (France)
The National Bloc was a center-right coalition in France which was in power from 1919 to 1924.- Elections of 1919 :Made up primarily of conservative right wing parties, such as the Fédération républicaine, Alliance démocratique, and Action libérale, the coalition had the support of various radical...
. He was defeated in 1924, re-elected in 1928
French legislative election, 1928
Legislative elections in France to elect the 14th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 22 and 29 April 1928.-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary Groups:...
still as an "independent", and then served until the Assembly was suspended in 1940. He took membership however after the 1936 elections
French legislative election, 1936
French legislative elections to elect the 16th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 26 April and 3 May 1936. This was the last legislature of the Third Republic and the last election before the Second World War. The number of candidates set a record, with 4,807 people vying for 618...
in the Republican Federation
Republican Federation
The Republican Federation was the largest conservative party during the French Third Republic, gathering together the liberal Orleanists rallied to the Republic. Founded in November 1903, it rivalized with the more secular and centrist Alliance démocratique...
which was moving increasingly to the right.
In the 1930s Vallat was a leading representative of the Catholic, anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
extreme right in French politics. He was also anti-Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
and anti-Masonic, arguing that Jews, Protestants and Masons were all part of a plot against Catholic France. He was violently opposed to liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Unlike many on the far right, however, Vallat did not favour restoration of the monarchy, and he was notably anti-German despite his sympathy for fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. He favoured the project for a Latin Bloc of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
In 1936 Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
, a Jewish Socialist, became Prime Minister of France
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
. Vallat made a series of personal rhetorical attacks in Blum, saying that "For the first time this ancient Gallo-Roman land will be governed by a Jew." Vallat was accused by the left of responsibility for the physical attack on Blum by a right-wing mob in the streets of Paris which occurred not long after this speech.
Vichy France
After the GermanNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupation of France in June 1940, Vallat supported the rise to power of Marshall Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
at head of a collaborationist regime based in Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
. In March 1941, he was appointed as head of the Commissariat-General for Jewish Questions, a body set up to implement the anti-Semitic laws enacted by Pétain's government. In this position he oversaw the "Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
isation" of the French economy, education system, civil service and professions, and the enforcement of laws requiring all Jews to be registered with the police. As the historian Robert Paxton
Robert Paxton
Robert O. Paxton is an American political scientist and historian specializing in Vichy France, fascism and Europe during the World War II era...
has demonstrated, these laws were passed by the Vichy regime on its own initiative and not under German pressure, as both Pétain and Vallat claimed at their trials after the war.
Although he was a zealous anti-Semite, Vallat was also a French patriot, and he became increasingly angry at the refusal of the Germans to reward Vichy's co-operation with a less restrictive occupation regime. He was particularly critical, as a veteran, of the German refusal to release almost two million French prisoners-of-war. As a result, the German Ambassador to Vichy, Otto Abetz
Otto Abetz
Dr. Heinrich Otto Abetz was the German ambassador to Vichy France during World War II.-Early years:Abetz was born in Schwetzingen on May 26, 1903. He was the son of an estate manager, who died when Otto was only 13...
, demanded that Pétain dismiss Vallat, which he did in May 1942. This meant that it was Vallat's successor, Louis Darquier de Pellepoix
Louis Darquier de Pellepoix
Louis Darquier, better known under his assumed name Louis Darquier de Pellepoix was Commissioner for Jewish Affairs under the Vichy Régime....
, who oversaw most of French co-operation with the German deportation of more than 70,000 French Jews to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, where most of them were killed.
Vallat remained a supporter of Vichy's policies, however, and in June 1944, when the Allied armies had already landed in Normandy
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
, he was appointed head of the Vichy Radio following the assassination of Philippe Henriot
Philippe Henriot
Philippe Henriot was a French politician.Moving to the far right after beginnings in Roman Catholic conservatism in the Republican Federation, Henriot was elected to the Third Republic's Chamber of Deputies for the Gironde département in 1932 and 1936...
by the Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
. He broadcast regular anti-Semitic tirades until the Allies occupied Vichy in August.
After the war
At his trial before the High Court of Justice in December 1947, Vallat remained an unrepentant anti-Semite, demanding that one of the judges, Maurice Kriegel-ValrimontMaurice Kriegel-Valrimont
Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont was a militant communist who took part in the French Resistance during the Second World War, and a French politician...
, be disqualified because he was Jewish. He denied direct responsibility for the deportations of the French Jews, claiming that his policies had saved more than half of the Jews from deportation. He falsely claimed that Vichy's anti-Jewish laws had been enacted on German orders. Vallat was sentenced to ten years in prison: the court said he received a relatively lenient sentence in the light of his service in World War I.
Vallat was released on parole in 1949 and amnestied in 1954. He returned to anti-Semitic agitation, although he found few followers in postwar France. From 1962 to 1966 he was editor of the extreme right-wing journal Aspects de la France.
When Vallat died in January 1972, the Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld created a sensation by arriving at his funeral with a large wreath in the shape of a yellow Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
, the symbol that French Jews had been forced to wear by the Nazis (although this measure had in fact been opposed by the Vichy government and was not enforced in the Vichy-controlled zone).
See also
- History of far right movements in FranceHistory of far right movements in FranceThe far-right tradition in France finds its origins in the Third Republic with the Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair.- The Third Republic from 1871 to 1914 :...
- Vichy FranceVichy FranceVichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...