Meanwhile, the Arch-Fiend Le Pen instills his poison. At a rally this week he spoke of how he would send back to their country all "illegal aliens". (Since there has been a lot of activism around defending their children who are at school), he went on:
"So people ask me, Have you thought about their children? Of course I've thought about their children!" Pause. Chin raised, arrogant, throw-away line: "They shouldn't be separated from their parents!"
No opportunity is ever wasted for Le Pen. That is a reference to July 1942 and the decision of the Vichy government that children should not be separated from their parents in the round-ups of Jews, that led to them being deported to Auschwitz together. If ever anyone asks Le Pen about it, he'll deny it, but that's what he's talking about. Red meat for the core fascists in the FN, since most of the idiots who support him won't get it.
As I said to Fran the other day, Le Pen opens his mouth, dead flies drop out. I forgot to mention the maggots and the stench. Charogne.
Le Pen seems to be alluding to a famous article by Robert Brasillach entitled 'N'oubliez pas les enfants'. He was writing about the rounding up and deportations of Jews, which initially only applied to people above a certain age limit. I remember back in the eighties on Apostrophes, watching an old guy applauding that as evidence for Brasillach's essential humanitarianism and concern for children. Some of the other guests looked like they wanted to show some him some of that humanitarianism themselves.
Le 4 juillet (1942), Laval fait une proposition que Dannecker transmet à Berlin le 6 juillet: "Le président Laval a proposé, lors de la déportation des familles juives de la zone non-occupée, d'y comprendre également les enfants âgés de moins de 16 ans. La question des enfants juifs restant en zone libre ne l'intéresse pas. Je vous demande de prendre une décision d'urgence, par télégramme..." (André Kaspi, Les Juifs pendant l'Occupation).
The round-ups were then quickly organized, in the occupied zone (specially Paris) and the "free" zone, on the basis of children 2 and over. These were often born in France and held French nationality, but their parents did not and all were deported together.
