Hollande marks WWII deportation, says Jews still face threats

Israel and the Jewish people still face constant threat, French President Francois Hollande said after a ceremony Sunday marking 70 years since the largest round-up of Jews in Nazi-occupied France, Israel Radio reported.

Some 13,000 Jews were deported by French police on July 16 and 17 1942. Many of the deportees had been holed up in Paris’ Vel d’Hiv, or the Winter Velodrome stadium.

Holland told the gathering Sunday that the crime “was committed in France by France.” He also said that “Not one German soldier, not one was mobilized during this entire operation.”

At the ceremony, Hollande said that his country will do everything in its power to ensure that its Jewish citizens live in peace and security. Hollande also said that France would combat anti-Semitism, and that not doing so would be equivalent to accepting it.

Former French president Jacques Chirac was the last French leader to lead a ceremony at the Paris site in 1995 and, for the first time, acknowledge the state’s role in Jewish persecution.