Vichy anti-Jewish legislation

Anti-Jewish laws were enacted by the Vichy France government in 1940 and 1941 affecting metropolitan France and its overseas territories during World War II. These laws were, in fact, decrees of head of state Marshal Philippe Pétain, since Parliament was no longer in office as of 11 July 1940. The motivation for the legislation was spontaneous and was not mandated by Germany. These laws were declared null and void on 9 August 1944 after liberation and on the restoration of republican legality.

The statutes were aimed at depriving Jews of the right to hold public office, designating them as a lower class, and depriving them of citizenship. Jews were subsequently rounded up at Drancy internment camp before being deported for extermination in Nazi concentration camps.

The denaturalization law was enacted on 16 July 1940, barely a month after the announcement of the Vichy regime of Petain. On 22 July 1940, the Deputy Secretary of State Raphaël Alibert created a committee to review 500,000 naturalisations given since 1927. This resulted in 15,000 people having their French nationality revoked, of whom 40% were Jews. Alibert was the signatory of the Statutes on Jews.

The first Jewish status laws dated 3 October 1940 excluded Jews from the army, press, commercial and industrial activities, and the civil service. The second status law was passed in July 1941 and required the registration of Jewish businesses and excluded Jews from any profession, commercial or industrial.

A further law on "Aliens of Jewish Race" of 4 October 1940, promulgated simultaneously with the Jewish status laws, allowed for the immediate internment of foreign Jews. Under the law 40,000 Jews were interned in various camps in the Zone libre, the Southern Zone: Nexon, Agde, Gurs, Noé, Récébédou (), Rivesaltes, and Le Vernet. On 1 July 1940, the Germans had expelled thousands of French Jews of Alsace and Lorraine to the Zone libre. Some settled in cities such as Limoges, others finished up in the camps such as Gurs.

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