Language:
English
Year of publication:
2002
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Modern History
Angaben zur Quelle:
74,2 (2002) 289-324
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews
;
Jewish refugees
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews History 1939-1945
Abstract:
In February-April 1941 the Vichy regime allowed more than 3,000 refugees, including many French and foreign Jews, to leave France for Martinique. At least six ships left from Marseille before these departures were stopped by the regime in May. The initiative for this escape route came from the Interior Ministry, while it was the Ministry of Colonies that harshly opposed and eventually halted the action. Among the motives which drove the Interior Ministry to "cleanse the fatherland" of undesirables, and the colonial administration both in Vichy and in the Caribbean to oppose the influx of the refugees, were racism and antisemitism. Upon their arrival, most of the refugees were placed in the detention camps of Balata and Lazaret. The Martinique plan stands at the crossroad of rescue and expulsion: wishing to get rid of Jews and other undesirables, the French wanted to do it in a "humanitarian way." There is a continuity between the Third Republic's idea to resettle "foreigners" and enemies of the regime in the colonies and this initiative of Vichy.
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