(1891-1972)
Xavier Vallat, a French politician, lawyer, journalist, and conservative member of the National Assembly representing Ardèche, is a fundamentalist Catholic and an opponent of Freemasonry.
On June 6, 1936, while lambasting the new Prime Minister, Léon Blum, in the Chamber of Deputies, Vallat made headlines with his violently anti-Semitic remarks and classified Jews as “revolutionaries” who posed a danger to the nation: “For the first time, this ancient Gallo-Roman country will be governed by a Jew.”
Following the military defeat of 1940, as early as July, Vallat took up a position in Vichy, working alongside Philippe Pétain.
In March 1941, he became head of the General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs (CGQJ), tasked with implementing the Vichy regime’s discriminatory policy toward Jews. In November, at the behest of the Germans, he founded the General Union of French Jews (UGIF), an organization intended to represent Jews before the government.
On June 2, 1941, he enacted the second statute for Jews and ordered a census of the Jewish population.
Jews are now barred from certain professions. A 2% cap has been imposed on certain professions—lawyers, doctors, and architects—and schools and universities are permitted to admit no more than 3% Jewish students.
It was also Xavier Vallat who organized the seizure and liquidation of Jewish property by the Vichy regime.
However, at the request of the Germans, Xavier Vallat was replaced in 1942 by Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, who was even more determined to eliminate Jews from public life.
On August 26, 1944, Vallat was arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced in 1947 to ten years in prison and lifelong national disgrace.
He was granted amnesty in 1954 and continued to voice his anti-Semitic views. He died in 1972.
Reference:
Joly, Laurent, 2001, *Xavier Vallat: From Christian Nationalism to State Antisemitism *. Grasset
