(JTA) – French President Francois Hollande reiterated statements against anti-Semitism at a ceremony honoring a part-Jewish victim of the Nazis along with three other resistance fighters.
Hollande made the statements on Wednesday, at a ceremony for the reburial of the resistance fighters’ remains in the French republic’s Pantheon in Paris.
“Seventy years on, these hatreds re-emerge,” Hollande said of the racism promoted by the Nazis and their French collaborators during Germany’s occupation of France. The haters have “different faces and under different circumstances, but always with the same words, and the same intentions. They target innocents, journalists, Jews and policemen,” Hollande said.
He also linked Nazi hatred to the killing of 17 people in Paris, in a series of attacks by Muslim fanatics in Paris in January. On Jan. 11, millions took to the streets in Paris to protest the killings.
“The French stood together on Jan. 11 to counter this deadly resurgence because they’re never afraid of defending their freedom,” said Hollande.
The reburial at the Pantheon was for the remains of Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion, Pierre Brossolette and Jean Zay.
Born to a Jewish father and a Protestant mother, Zay, a left-wing lawmaker, was a founder of the Cannes Film Festival. He was assassinated in 1944 while under the custody of pro-Nazi French authorities for anti-Nazi activities.
