Louis Darquier de Pellepoix

Louis Darquier (19 December 1897, Cahors – 29 August 1980, near Málaga, Spain), better known under his assumed name Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, was Commissioner-General for Jewish Affairs under the Vichy Régime.[1]

Louis Darquier de Pellepoix
Darquier in 1942–44
Commissioner-General for Jewish Affairs
In office 8 May 1942 (1942-05-08) – 26 February 1944 (1944-02-26) (1 year, 9 months and 18 days)
Municipal councilor of Paris
In office 1935 (1935) – 1940 (1940) (4 or 5 years)
Personal details
Born	Louis Darquier (1887-12-19)19 December 1887 Cahors, French Republic
Died	29 August 1980(1980-08-29) (aged 92) near Málaga, Kingdom of Spain
Nationality	French
Political party	Action Française
Profession	Journalist

Biography

A veteran of World War I, Darquier had been active in Fascist and antisemitic politics in France in the 1930s, being a member, at various times, of Action Française, Croix-de-Feu and Jeunesses Patriotes. On 6 February 1934 he was injured at the Place de la Concorde riot, and, according to Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times in 2006, "parlayed (his) new status as a 'man of 6 February' into a leadership role."[2] During this period he began collaborating with the noted antisemitic publisher Ulrich Fleischhauer's Welt-Dienst (World-Service or Service Mondial) organization based in Erfurt, Germany.

Darquier's extreme views were well-publicized. In 1937, he said, at a public meeting, "We must, with all urgency, resolve the Jewish problem, whether by expulsion, or massacre."[3] A British report in 1942 called him "one of the most notorious anti-semites in France".[4] At Nazi Germany's behest, he was appointed to head Vichy's Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs in May 1942, succeeding Xavier Vallat, whom the SS in France found too moderate.[5] Darquier's ascent to this post immediately preceded the first mass deportations of Jews from France to concentration camps. He was fired in February 1944 when,[6] in Nicholas Fraser's words, "his greed and incompetence could no longer be countenanced."[7]

Darquier with Myrtle Jones c. 1931

He was sentenced to death in absentia in 1947 by the French High Court of Justice for collaboration.[8] However, he had fled to Spain, where the Fascist regime of Francisco Franco protected him.[9]

In 1978, a French journalist from L'Express magazine interviewed him. Among other things, Darquier declared that in Auschwitz, gas chambers were not used to kill humans, but only lice, and that allegations of killings by this method were lies by the Jews.[10][11] When L'Express published the interview, it caused an immediate scandal. The extradition of Darquier was considered, but was refused by Spain.[8] The incident raised awareness of the persecution of French Jews during the Holocaust.[10]

The English psychiatrist Anne Darquier was his daughter by his Australian wife, Myrtle Jones. She was abandoned by her parents as a child in the 1930s when she was left with a London nanny.[12]

References

1. Fraser, p. 89.
2. Maslin, Janet (12 October 2006) On the Unsavory Trail of a Vichy-Era Monster, New York Times.
3. Fraser, pp. 89–91.
4. Brewis, Kathy (19 March 2006) The villain of Vichy France, Sunday Times.
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2006.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. "Commissariat général aux questions juives et Service de restitution des biens des victimes des lois et mesures de spoliation (1/3)". FranceArchives. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
7. Fraser, p. 91, mistakenly writes that he was fired in 1943.
8. Callil, Carmen (2006) Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland, and Vichy France, Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-07810-0. Also Alfred A. Knopf 2006: ISBN 0-375-41131-3.
9. Fraser, p. 91.
10. "How French society views the Jews of France". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
11. Paxton, Robert O. (16 November 2006). "The Jew Hater". Retrieved 19 July 2019.
12. Fraser, pp. 88–90.

Cited sources

• Fraser, Nicholas (2006) "Toujours Vichy: a reckoning with disgrace," Harper's, pp. 86–94. Review of two books, including Callil, Bad Faith.

Further reading

• Peter Conrad, Vile days in Vichy, The Observer, 26 March 2006. Accessed online 11 October 2006.
• Encyclopedia of the Holocaust Darquier de Pellepoix, Louis.
• David A. Bell, "The Collaborator," The Nation, 11 December 2006, pp. 28–36. Review of Bad Faith by Carmen Callil, includes a summary of that book.
• Frederick Brown, The Embrace of Unreason: France, 1914–1940 (Knopf, 2014.)