The Holocaust in France
Genocide committed by Nazi German Occupiers and Vichy French Government
The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution began in 1940, and culminated in deportations of Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Poland. The deportations started in 1942 and lasted until July 1944. In 1940, 340,000 Jews, about two-thirds French citizens and one-third refugees from Nazi Germany, were living in continental France. More than 75,000 Jews were deported to death camps, where about 72,500 were killed.
Most of these Jews were foreigners : 25 000 from Poland, 7,000 from Germany, 4,000 from Russia, 3,000 from Romania, 3,000 from Austria, 1,500 from Greece, 1,500 from Turkey, 1,200 from Hungary. French Jews numbered around 24,000 (6,500 French Jews from Metropole, 1,500 from Algeria, 8,000 children of foreign parents, 8,000 Jews naturalized).
Antisemitism was prevalent throughout Europe at the time. As in other German-occupied and aligned states, the Nazis in France relied to a considerable extent on the co-operation of local authorities to carry out what they called the Final Solution. The government of Vichy France and the French police organized and implemented the roundups of Jews. Although the vast majority of the deported Jews were killed, the overall survival rate of the Jewish population in France was up to 75%, which is one of the highest survival rates in Europe.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Holocaust in France” as genocide committed by Nazi German Occupiers and Vichy French Government. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as genocide committed by Nazi German Occupiers and Vichy French Government. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4499404. The Library of Congress control number is sh2008105722. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 1944 and 1942.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Holocaust in France” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.