Macron honors Holocaust victims at Paris memorial

French presidential candidate pays respects to 76,000 Jews deported from France, with message of ‘never again’

PARIS — Amid worries about rising nationalism, French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron visited the Holocaust Memorial in Paris with a somber message: “Never again.”

Macron, who, if elected, would become France’s youngest president at 39, paid his respects at the memorial where he was greeted by France’s chief rabbi, Haim Korsia.

“What happened is unforgettable and unforgivable,” Macron said after pausing before the wall bearing the names of 76,000 Jews who were deported, of whom just 2,500 survived. “It should never happen again.”

Sunday was France’s national day of remembrance for the victims of the deportation of French Jews to Nazi Germany, which holds a highly sensitive place in the national psyche.

French presidential election candidate for the En-Marche movement, Emmanuel Macron (L) listens to Chairman of the Shoah Memorial, Eric de Rothschild (R) as they walk by the Wall of the Names, engraved with the names of 76,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, who were deported from France during the Nazi occupation, on April 30, 2017 in Paris. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / PHILIPPE WOJAZER)

“The homage that I wanted to make today is this duty that we owe to all these lives torn down by the extremes, by barbarism,” Macron said.

Holocaust survivors and children of its victims were among those present on Sunday.

French presidential election candidate for the En Marche ! movement Emmanuel Macron stands in the Crypt of the Shoah Memorial on April 30, 2017 in Paris. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / PHILIPPE WOJAZER)

Macron also looked at documentation showing the collaboration by French authorities with the Nazis.

It’s the second time in three days that Macron visited a site tied to France’s wartime history. He is seeking to remind voters of the anti-Semitic past of his rival Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front.

Earlier in the day Le Pen discreetly laid a wreath at a Holocaust memorial in the French city of Marseille, which commemorates the rounding up of 30 Jewish children and their mothers by the Gestapo on October 20, 1943 in the city.

French presidential election candidate for the En Marche ! movement Emmanuel Macron (3rd L) listens to Jacques Fredj (3rd R), director of the Paris Shoah Memorial, during a visit to the Shoah Memorial on April 30, 2017 in Paris. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / PHILIPPE WOJAZER)

A tweet from a National Front party official shows Le Pen paying tribute to the victims of the Nazis.

According to AFP, Le Pen did not invite the press to event.

Earlier this month, Le Pen was criticized for saying today’s France bore no responsibility for the 1942 roundup and deportation of more than 13,000 Jews from a Paris cycling track.

Last week, her anti-immigrant National Front (FN) became embroiled in controversy over the choice of an interim leader who had been accused of praising a Holocaust denier.

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Jean-Francois Jalkh, who was tapped to lead the FN after Le Pen stepped aside to campaign for the presidency, was quickly replaced, while Jalkh himself denied making the remarks.

Macron and Le Pen face off in a May 7 presidential runoff.