In the summer of 1942, anti-Semitic persecution intensified in France. Communist Jews sought to mobilize both Jews and non-Jews, French and foreign nationals, within an organization specifically dedicated to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism. They founded the Mouvement National contre le Racisme (MNCR).
Founded in the spring of 1942 by the Jewish section of the M.O.I., the National Movement Against Racism (MNCR) aimed to raise public awareness of the anti-Semitic policies of the Vichy regime and the occupying forces, and to foster a movement of solidarity with their victims.
The Jewish section was convinced that, without the help of the French people, all Jews were doomed to deportation. At the same time, its press, in French and Yiddish, called on them to go underground and to frame their struggle as part of the fight for France’s liberation. They had to hide children at risk of deportation, organize escapes and border crossings, find “hiding places,” and forge false papers.
The MNCR distributed several underground newspapers, the two most important of which were *J’accuse* in the northern zone and *Fraternité* in the southern zone. It also publishes leaflets and brochures: for example, the October 20, 1942, issue of *J’accuse*, which discusses the murders of Jews by a “new toxic gas,” and *Le Mensonge raciste. *Its Origins, Its Nature, Its Misdeeds*, written by the philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch in Toulouse in 1943. The MNCR developed ties with certain members of the Catholic episcopate and the Protestant community, which enabled rescue operations such as the rescue of 63 children from an UGIF shelter in Paris in February 1943.
In 1949, the MNCR became the Movement Against Racism, Anti-Semitism, and for Peace (MRAP).
Reference:
Adler, Jacques, 1985, *Facing Persecution: Jewish Organizations in Paris from 1940 to 1941*, Calmann-Lévy.
