The law of June 2, 1941, tightened the provisions of the law of October 3, 1940, and established a second legal status for Jews, prohibiting them from attending university and practicing many professions. Jews with French nationality were not exempt fromadministrative internment. The law also applied in Algeria and throughout the French overseas territories.
Through this same law of June 2, 1941, published on June 14, the Vichy government further clarified its new definition of a Jew, regardless of that person’s religion, whether converted or not, or whether they had no religion at all.
Indeed, according to the law, a person is considered a Jew—whether male or female—if “he or she, regardless of religious affiliation, has at least three grandparents of Jewish descent, or only two if his or her spouse also has two grandparents of Jewish descent.”
The entire legislative framework is based on the Nazi concept of the “Jewish race.”
At the same time, a second census targeted the Jews. Their daily lives were almost unbearable. They were registered, spied on, threatened, denounced, stripped of their possessions, and—for many—deprived of their jobs.
The insidious strategy of persecution—known as “segmentation”—which targets one group at a time, starting with foreign men, followed by women, the elderly, and children, perpetuates illusions and even leads some French Jews to believe they are protected.
An autonomous Jewish Resistance center was established in the southern zone by the leadership of“Solidarité,” which played a significant role in providing mutual aid from the very beginning. Jacques Kaminski, Sczmulek Farber, and Jacques Ravine, who had secretly crossed the demarcation line, were its leaders. They established contacts with Jews in the major cities of the south.
In mid-June 1941, they met with non-Jewish democratic organizations. At the same time, they worked to dispel any illusions of safety among Jews refugees in the southern zone.
