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Netanyahu in Paris for commemoration of WWII Vel d’Hiv roundup of Jews

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be in Paris tomorrow, Sunday, for a commemoration to mark the 75th anniversary of the rounding up and incarceration of Paris’ Jews in the Vél d'Hiv in 1942.

Vel' d'Hiv Monument, Quai de Grenelle, Paris
Vel' d'Hiv Monument, Quai de Grenelle, Paris Leonieke Aalders/Wikimedia Commons
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The commemoration will be followed by a “work meeting” with French president, Emmanuel Macron, who is anxious to get the currently moribund Middle East peace process back on track.

"On this occasion, there will be a working meeting" between French President Emmanuel Macron and Netanyahu, the French presidency said of the visit -- the first by the Israeli leader since Macron's election.

Seventy-five years ago, on July 16 and 17 1942, more than 13,000 Jews were arrested in Paris, many of whom were gathered in the Vel d’Hiv stadium in the 15th arrondissement.

The round-up was a Nazi-directed raid carried out by the authorities in occupied France.

The Jews were kept under inhuman conditions with almost no food or water or proper sanitation for four days before being sent to Auschwitz and other camps.

Former French president, Jacques Chirac, apologized in 1995 for the complicit role that French policemen and civil servants served in the raid

A total of 42,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz from France during World War II.

 

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