Laure Dautriche 12:30 p.m., July 17, 2022

This weekend, France commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv', where 13,000 Jews were arrested in Paris.

Historian Laurent Joly has just published an investigation into the organization of the Roundup by the French police.

On Europe 1, he looks back on the role and actions of the police in July 1942.

80 years ago, in July 1942, 13,000 Jews were arrested in Paris and the suburbs at the request of the Germans to be deported.

The historian Laurent Joly has just published an investigation which reveals how the French police organized this roundup of the Vel' d'Hiv.

Months of work cross-checked the archives to provide new information on this episode.

At the time, it was the Vichy government that instructed the Paris police headquarters to organize this roundup without any Nazi participation during Austria.

From 20 to 60% of arrests in Paris

Not a German took part in the raid.

Even the head of Jewish affairs at the Gestapo is not there.

The French police carry out the orders, some blindly, others help the Jews to flee, explains the historian Laurent Joly, the author of the book La Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv at Grasset.

Witnesses confided in the historian.

"Jenny Plocki says that she was stopped by a former next-door neighbor who will stay there and watch that Jenny's parents are gathering their things. Conversely, Annette Zaidman says that he said he would come back in a quarter of an hour. hour and that he came downstairs. And there, his aunt flees. At that moment, he sees a policeman, who is in front of a window, and who is going to look away to let them pass.

Two-thirds of the Jews who were on the lists manage to get out of it and are not arrested in the end.

With big differences depending on the arrondissements of Paris.

"It can go from 20% arrests in the 2nd, up to more than 60% in the 12th. And there, we realize that there are very zealous commissioners who really gave the order to their teams to be tough, and others who said 'We have a chore to do, let's do it in a human way'".

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One out of five police officers had to account after the war before the purification commission.

Those who were overzealous were punished.

Today, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Vel 'd'Hiv' roundup, Emmanuel Macron is expected at the old Pithiviers station where convoys were leaving for the extermination camps.

The president is to deliver an offensive speech against anti-Semitism this afternoon, according to the Elysee.