Xavier Vallat (December 23, 1891 – January 6, 1972), French politician and antisemite who was Commissioner-General for Jewish Questions 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

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

Until World War II

Vallat was born in the department of

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. In his youth he was active in Catholic organisations and joined the

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalis ...

Action Française Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

'', 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 In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

for the

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.National Bloc.Biographical notice
on the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are kn ...

's website 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 The Republican Federation (french: Fédération républicaine, FR) was the largest conservative party during the French Third Republic, gathering together the progressive Orléanists rallied to the Republic. Founded in November 1903, the par ...

which was moving increasingly to the right. In the 1930s Vallat was a leading representative of the Catholic,

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

extreme right in French politics. He was also anti-

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

and anti-

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, arguing that Jews, Protestants and Masons were all part of a plot against Catholic France. He was violently opposed to

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostilit ...

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

and

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

. 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 is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and t ...

. He favoured the project for a

Latin Bloc The Latin Bloc ( it, Blocco Latino; french: Bloc Latin; es, Bloque Latino; pt, Bloco Latino; ro, Blocul Latin) was a proposal for an alliance made between the 1920s to the 1940s that began with Italy's '' Duce'' Benito Mussolini proposing such a ...

of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. In 1936

Léon Blum André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...

, a Jewish Socialist, became

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister i ...

. Vallat made a series of personal rhetorical attacks on 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

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

occupation of France in June 1940, Vallat supported the rise to power of Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...

at the head of a collaborationist regime based in

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...

. On 10 July 1940, he voted in favour of granting the Cabinet presided by Marshal Pétain the authority to draw up a new constitution, thereby effectively ending the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...

and establishing Vichy France. 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. He later established the Union générale des israélites de France on 29 November 1941. In this position, he oversaw the " Aryanisation" 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 Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

, 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 Philippe Henriot (7 January 1889 – 28 June 1944) was a French poet, journalist, politician, and minister in the French government at Vichy, where he directed propaganda broadcasts. He also joined the Milice part-time. Career Philippe Henriot, ...

by the Resistance. He broadcast regular anti-Semitic tirades until the Allies liberated 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-Valrimont Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont (14 May 1914 – 2 August 2006) was a militant communist who took part in the French Resistance during the Second World War, and a French politician. Along with General Leclerc and Henri Rol-Tanguy, he accepted the sur ...

, 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 claimed that Vichy's anti-Jewish laws had been enacted on German orders, but they were really done by the French themselves. Vallat was sentenced to ten years in prison. The court said he received a relatively lenient sentence in light of his service in World War I, and the many witnesses who said he had saved Jews by giving them false papers. He wanted a separate zone for the Jews, not their extermination. 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 weekly ''Aspects de la France''. When Vallat died in January 1972, the Nazi hunters

Serge and Beate Klarsfeld Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...

created a sensation by arriving at his funeral with a large wreath in the shape of a yellow

Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

, 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).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vallat, Xavier 1891 births 1972 deaths People from Vaucluse French Roman Catholics Politicians from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Republican Federation politicians Members of the 12th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 14th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 15th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 16th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Christian fascists People of Vichy France People affiliated with Action Française French anti-communists French military personnel of World War I French collaborators with Nazi Germany Holocaust perpetrators in France Order of the Francisque recipients Catholicism and far-right politics Anti-Masonry Antisemitism in France Roman Catholic conspiracy theorists French politicians convicted of crimes French conspiracy theorists

Until World War II

Vichy France

After the war

See also

References