Giving France Credit for Jews' Survival

‘In some countries, the French have the reputation of being anti-Semitic,” Jacques Semelin writes in “The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44.” It is the goal of his careful study to show that France as a nation deserves more credit for helping save the majority of its Jewish population from death during the German occupation. The figures are striking: There were about 320,000 Jews living in France in 1940, including some 135,000 immigrants. Of this total, a quarter were deported and murdered by the Nazi killing machine. But 75% survived to the end of the war—a stark contrast with countries such as Poland and the Netherlands, where the percentages were substantially reversed.