XPost: soc.culture.israel, soc.culture.jewish, soc.veterans   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa   
   From: adhellman@volcanomail.com   
      
         The French State was responsible for deporting Jews during the Second   
   World War, the top judicial authority ruled for the first time yesterday,   
   but it dismayed families of victims by declaring that they had already been   
   compensated.   
      
         The decision by the Council of State, the final arbiter on civil law   
   matters, made formal a doctrine that has been accepted by successive   
   governments since 1995.   
      
         It was advising on a case brought by Madeleine Hoffman-Glemane, 75,   
   one of hundreds of victims who have sued recently for damages over their   
   arrests and deportation during the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1944.   
      
         The council called for a "solemn recognition of the responsibility of   
   the State". France was "responsible for damages caused by actions which did   
   not result from the occupiers' direct orders but facilitated deportation   
   from France of people who were victims of anti-Semitic persecution", it   
   said.   
      
         The ruling endorses a view that was proclaimed by the former President   
   Jacques Chirac when he took office in 1995. Before that the crimes of the   
   collaborationist Vichy Government had been acknowledged but they had been   
   ascribed widely to an outlaw regime and not to the French State.   
      
         The late President Mitterrand who left office in 1995 and who served   
   as an official of the Vichy regime, refused to accept the responsibility of   
   the nation for more than 75,000 people who were taken to Nazi death camps.   
   Most were arrested by French police on the orders of state officials and few   
   survived.   
      
         http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5748523.ece   
      
      
      
      
   It's not often that I'm in agreement with the French but this time I'm in   
   full agreement; compensation has been paid and accepted by the victims   
   families. The debt France owes it's Jewish citizens has been paid in full.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   --   
   Dr. Auric D. Hellman   
   adhellman@volcanomail.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)