Arbitrary detention of Jews without trial under emergency laws.
Outside of any judicial proceedings, the government, represented by the prefects, was authorized to organize the internment of “undesirables,” primarily Jews.
- The Emergency Law of October 3, 1940—described as the first legal framework governing Jews—was enacted by the Vichy government one day before the law concerning “foreign nationals of the Jewish race,” which served as the basis for the internment of foreign Jews.
- The law of June 2, 1941, replaced the law of October 3. This second set of regulations governing Jews reinforced their exclusion from many professions and required Jews in the unoccupied zone to register, under penalty of “internment in a special camp, even if the person concerned is French.”
Reference
Billig, Joseph, 1955, *The General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs (1941–1944)*, 3 vols. Éditions du Centre.
