Union of Jewish Volunteer Veterans 1939 - 1945

Children and Friends

Paris - France

Fresco executed by the Union's painting workshop

The Jewish combattant at France's service

Speech by François Szulman,
during the yearly ceremony
at the cemetery of
Bagneux Paris,
June 6, 2010

"There are exactly seventy years today, on the 6th of June 1940, at Marchélopot, Misery and south of Peronne in the Somme, the 22nd regiment of foreign volunteers (22éme RMVE) crushed under a deluge of steel and fire spilled from the 3rd and 4th Nazi Panzer divisions.
After stopping the German advance for 15 days from May 24 to June 6, 1940.
The 22nd, completely decimated, was cited in the order of the army, for it’s courage and bravery.
This unit is composed mostly of Spanish Republicans driven from their country by the victory of Franco and the Jews of Eastern Europe fleeing anti-Semitism in their country of origin.
After the declaration of war on Germany, September 3, 1939, 83000 foreigners living on national soil enlisted in the French army, including 25,000 Jews.
This number represents almost all men able to bear arms among this community. Overwhelmed by the influx of volunteers, recruiting offices were quickly bottled, so that Jewish organizations openned recruiting centers in their own offices, and set scheduled visits to potential recruits.
This massive movement rose from deep and multiple motivations.
-The defense of their country of adoption that welcommed them, despite a negative history fueled by virulent -anti-Semitism.
-The fight against racism and Nazism, which they understood very early the deadly danger.
-The defense of republican values that helped their integration into the French nation.
Despite this surge of patriotism, the head of the army exhibits profoundly ambiguous behavior. A confidential note warns against the incorporation into the regular army of undesirable persons, with questionable loyalty. They are directed to the foreign legion and included in units specifically created for them.
The 21 th - 22 th - 23 th - Régiments de Marche des Volontaires Étrangers.
The 11 th - 12 th – Regiments Étrangers d’Infanterie.
The 13th Demi-Brigade la Légion Étrangère.
The enlistments continued through May 1940 and the volunteers were scattered in the regiments already established in the Foreign Legion, in North Africa, the Levant and even Indochina. Clearly, the GHQ didn’t expect very much from these units composed by two groups, Jews and Spanish, with specific behaviour and mentality. Making soldiers out of these heterogeneous troops, was not an easy task.
The provision of equipment and weaponry was clearly inadequate and obsolete.
In the barracks, at Barcarès near Perpignan, of 21 th - 22 th - 23 th RMVE, the volunteers are dressed in ragtag khaki, blue horizon, blue hunter, wearing distorted “képis” , berets, fez, and wrinkled caps. Area residents call them "the Salvation Army."
Armament: Lebel guns of the Rif war, strapless, replaced by the string, hence the nickname given by the Nazi propaganda radio Stuttgart "Regiments Ficelles”. Heavy weapons are sorely lacking. It is not surprising that the teaching of such a crowd of strangers has posed many problems. The Jews, mature, often educated, already fathers, are deeply impervious to the culture of the barracks. General Albert Brothier, then young sub-lieutenant in the 22th to RMVE Barcarès writes:
"The Jewish soldiers have qualities that do not fit the traditional standards of the French army. By observing the behavior of our Jewish volunteers, later I understood better why the Israel Defense Forces, familiarity and the brazenness go so well with courage and tremendous efficiency”.
Despite the mediocre hopes placed in them, the five foreign units, 11 th -12 th REI, 21 th - 22 th - 23 th RMVE taking part in the Battle of France May 10-June 22, 1940, are performing feats.
The 11th IPE fought at Sedan, it was cited in the order of the army.
The 12th IPE defends Soissons, it was cited in the order of the army.
The 21st RMVE placed rearguard on the Aisne, permits retirement of the Seventh French army.
The 22th RMVE stops advancing of the enemy on the Somme for 15 days, it was cited in the order of the army.
The 23 th RMVE combats at Ste Menehould, Villers-Cotterets, Pont sur Yonne until the armistice.
The 13th DBLE, the most prestigious unit of the French army took part in battles In Narvik, Norway, in Eritrea, in the Levant, Italy, at the landing in Provence, at the end of the war in Germany.
The 13th Demi Brigade of the Foreign Legion was listed in order of the army.

13 lists in order of the Army, were awarded during the Battle of France in 1940. On this meager total, 4 were to the foreign infantry. On a total of 1.5 million infantry soldiers, the 20,000 foreigners get a third of the awards.
The behaviour of the foreign volunteers ranked from honorable to spectacular. the legionnaires compensate the lack of military technology with their courage and tenacity. The minutes of operation of various units conclude that Jews do their duty, and perform very well in fire. The losses suffered by the regiment are considerable, two-thirds of the staff.
What is certain is that the foreign units that fought in France in 1940 have participated in the most impressive fightings, in a French army that collapsed in six weeks, after having sacrificed 100,000 service men.
The majority of survivors find themselves prisoners in the prison camps in Germany. The Germans apply the Geneva Conventions and very few jewish prisoners are persecuted. Those who escape from captivity are all mercilessly persecuted as jews, stripped of their property, interned in camps in France, supplied to the torturers and exterminated in Nazi death camps.
The Jewish fighters were convinced that their commitment to the defense of France would protect their families against the anti-Jewish laws of the Vichy government. Fatal error, like Legionnaire ' Victor Fajnzylberg” from the 22nd RMVE who lost a leg in the battle of Marchélepot on June 4, 1940, he wrote to Marshal Petain asking for the release of his wife rounded up on July 16th 1942. For any response, the police came to arrest him with their two young children, they were exterminated in Auschwitz.

At the end of the hostilities, on May 8, 1945, many Jewish prisoners of war, returned from Germany find no wives or children, or relatives swept away by the Holocaust.

Many volunteers for 1939 escape the fierce repression join the partisans of “Free France” and participate in the victory over Nazism. Two examples among others:
Joseph Epstein called "Colonel Gilles", legionnaire in the 12th REI, Chief of Staff of the FFI-FTP of the Ile de France, arrested by the Gestapo November 16, 1943, shot on Mount Valerian April 11, 1944.
Marcel Langer, legionnaire in the 12 th REI 35th Brigade, commander of the FTP-MOI in Toulouse, arrested and guillotined on July 23, 1943.
This page of our history so far overshadowed must take its place in the collective memory of the nation, in order to recognize the role of Jewish fighters for the preservation of their adopted country, for the defense of freedom, dignity and humanity.
The memory is all that we have left, it compels us to convey to younger generations the example of those men who at one point in their lives were able to say "no!"

Thank you.

September 2nd 1939 War is declared	Our archives & our bulletin
Marc Chagall	Battlefield Death field
A pow camp in Germany	Purification & prosecution
Heros & Martyrs	Barcarès Bagneux Tribute & remembrance

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