Louis Darquier de Pellepoix | |
|---|---|
 Darquier in 1942–44 | |
| Commissioner-General for Jewish Affairs | |
| In office 8 May 1942 (1942-05-08) – 26 February 1944 (1944-02-26) (1 year, 9 months and 18 days) | |
| Municipal councilor of Paris | |
| In office 1935 (1935) – 1940 (1940) (4 or 5 years) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Louis Darquier (1887-12-19)19 December 1887 |
| Died | 29 August 1980(1980-08-29) (aged 92) |
| Nationality | French |
| Political party | Action Française |
| Profession | Journalist |
Louis Darquier (19 December 1897 – 29 August 1980), better known under his assumed nameLouis Darquier de Pellepoix, wasCommissioner-General for Jewish Affairs under theVichy Régime.[1]
A veteran ofWorld War I, Darquier had been active inFascist andantisemitic politics inFrance in the 1930s, being a member, at various times, ofAction Française,Croix-de-Feu andJeunesses Patriotes. On 6 February 1934 he was injured at thePlace de la Concorde riot, and, according toJanet Maslin, writing inThe New York Times in 2006, "parlayed (his) new status as a 'man of 6 February' into a leadership role."[2] The article was based on the publication byCarmen Callil of her highly praised book on Darquier called 'Bad Faith'. During this period Darquier began collaborating with the notedantisemitic publisherUlrich Fleischhauer'sWelt-Dienst (World-Service orService Mondial) organization based inErfurt,Germany.
Darquier's extreme views were well-publicized. In 1937, he said, at a public meeting, "We must, with all urgency, resolve the Jewish problem, whether by expulsion, or massacre."[3] A British report in 1942 called him "one of the most notorious anti-semites in France".[4] AtNazi Germany's behest, he was appointed to head Vichy'sCommissariat-General for Jewish Affairs in May 1942, succeedingXavier Vallat, whom theSS in France found too moderate.[5] Darquier's ascent to this post immediately preceded the first mass deportations ofJews from France to concentration camps. He was fired in February 1944 when,[6] in Nicholas Fraser's words, "his greed and incompetence could no longer be countenanced."[7] His successor wasCharles du Paty de Clam.
ON 10 December 1947 He was sentenced todeathin absentia national degradation for life and the confiscation of his property by the French High Court of Justice forcollaboration.[8] However, he had by then fled to Spain, where the Fascist regime ofFrancisco Franco protected him.[9] He was among French exilesAbel Bonnard, including Georges and Maud Guilbaud and Alain Laubreaux
In 1978, a French journalist fromL'Express magazine interviewed him. Among other things, Darquier declared that inAuschwitz,gas chambers were not used to kill humans, but onlylice, and that allegations of killings by this method were lies by the Jews.[10][11] WhenL'Express published the interview, it caused an immediate scandal. Theextradition of Darquier was requested, but was refused by Spain.[8] The incident raised awareness of the persecution of French Jews during the Holocaust.[10]
The English psychiatristAnne Darquier was his daughter by hisAustralian wife, Myrtle Jones. She was abandoned by her parents as a child in the 1930s when she was left with a London nanny.[12]
