FRENCH ELECTIONS
Ire over Marine Le Pen’s denial of wartime Jewish arrests
Paris — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen drew protests from her political rivals and the Israeli government on Monday by denying the French state’s responsibility for a mass arrest of Jews in Paris during the Second World War. Two weeks before the first round of the election in which she is a frontrunner, Le Pen touched a nerve by reopening debate about the state’s role in one of the darkest episodes in French history under the Nazi occupation. "I think France isn’t responsible for the Vel d’Hiv," Le Pen said on Sunday, referring to the German-ordered round-up by French police of 13,000 Jews in July 1942. Most were crammed into the Velodrome d’Hiver cycling stadium, commonly known as the Vel d’Hiv, before being deported to Auschwitz. "I think that, in general, if there are people responsible, it is those who were in power at the time. It is not France," Le Pen said in an interview with media groups Le Figaro, RTL and LCI. Le Pen’s rivals pounced on her comments, which ...
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