THE ARYANIZATION AND despoliation of Jewish belongings took place on such a vast scale, and the concept of their restitution and compensation was so complicated and incomplete, that, in the late 1970s, it seemed impossible to me that any form of reparation would happen, however justified it would have been.
My viewpoint was clear: we would not be able to obtain anything until the French public’s knowledge of the Jews’ fate during the German occupation and under the Vichy regime had reached a higher level. That would take many years.
Those years passed … When I was told of what Jacques Chirac was going to say at the Vél’ d’Hiv commemoration on July 16, 1995—that he would acknowledge the responsibility of France itself—I wanted our claims to be explained so clearly and forcefully that, the following day, the president of the Republic would legitimize them with the substance of his speech.
On July 15, 1995, a full-page article appeared in Libération under the headline “The Forgotten Theft of Jewish Deportees’ Belongings.” The journalist, Annette Lévy-Willard, wrote: “Serge Klarsfeld thought it was time to open another black chapter in the history of the French state.”
That chapter concerned despoiled Jewish goods, and it would, later on, enable me to obtain a modest pension for all the orphans of Jewish deportees that would allow them to avoid falling into poverty.
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ON FEBRUARY 5, 1997, the French prime minister Alain Juppé formed a committee, led by Jean Mattéoli—a former Resistance member and deportee—to study the circumstances in which the goods were despoiled, to assess the scale of the loss, to establish what happened to those goods, and to formulate proposals for what would happen to goods held by French public entities.
I served on that committee with six other people but soon found myself isolated. I was the only one who believed in the Jewish orphans’ claims for compensation. Still, serving on the commission did allow me to obtain dossiers that had not yet been consulted concerning the arrests and transfer of Jews.
I set to work on my research with enthusiasm, as I was in a position to uncover and bring together documents that would enable me to construct something precious: in addition to the complete, precise identification of nearly eighty thousand victims, I could now provide the address where each arrest took place and the transit camps through which each deportee passed before being sent to a concentration camp.
The three years I spent on the committee were extremely demanding. Progress reports were published in December 1997 and February 1999, before a final report was published in the spring of 2000. Prior to the second progress report, I was worried that the issue of the orphans would not be addressed, so I presented the committee with the following statement, proposing that it should constitute one of the recommendations made to the government: “In these circumstances, the mission asks that the situation of the children of deportees from France be taken into account, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence, and that appropriate measures be taken, notably the payment of a compensatory life annuity for those who do not already receive compensation for the same purpose.”
In early January, I met Jean Mattéoli and made clear to him that, if he did not support my proposal, I would resign from the committee and even begin a campaign against it. He assured me that I had his support. The fourth and final recommendation of the 1999 report concerned the orphans’ situation. It differed from my proposal only in a few words.
I encouraged the members of our Sons and Daughters Association to write to the prime minister individually, telling their life stories as orphans of Jewish deportees, and explaining what the proposed life annuity would mean for them in their approaching old age. On September 23, 1999, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin wrote to me:
With dignity and courage, each of those letters carries a fragment of the horror experienced by the children.
You know that I am very attentive to the situation of orphans of deportation. I asked a special commission to examine the recommendations made by the Mattéoli committee in its second progress report. As soon as I have the results of that commission, I will make an announcement on the life annuity proposal. I know that time is pressing, and I want the issue to be resolved this autumn.
The commission’s report was made public on October 25. It was very long and confused, but its final conclusion read: “We should, however, emphasize the practical difficulties raised by the Mattéoli report’s recommendation…”
If the prime minister had followed the commission’s advice, the life annuity would have been dead and buried. Thankfully, his sensitivity and strength of character allowed him to overcome the inspectors’ objections and reservations. On November 13, 1999, he announced his decision:
I have decided that the orphans of Jews deported from France should benefit—either in the form of a lump sum or a monthly pension—from a gesture expressing the duty we owe them. The necessary measures to implement this compensation will be prepared by the government in the coming weeks.
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WEEKS PASSED. Months passed. By June 30 of the following year, I had still heard nothing. I was convinced that, if nothing was published by July 16, 2000—the anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv roundup—the life annuity would never happen.
I sent letters to Jospin’s advisers stating clearly that, if no official announcement had been made by July 13, I would publicly protest the prime minister’s broken promise during the anniversary commemoration.
On July 13, the government’s official journal published the announcement of a compensation to be paid to orphans of deportees, either a life annuity of 3,000 francs per month or a single payment of 180,000 francs.
My next battle was to have the amount of the life annuity indexed to inflation. This battle lasted years and only succeeded in the end thanks to Arno, who joined the cabinet of Prime Minister François Fillon in 2007. As a consequence, the monthly sum paid to each orphan now stands at 550 euros, and it will continue to rise in step with the cost of living.
This long campaign, so dear to our hearts, brought us the immense satisfaction and relief of knowing that none of the deportees’ descendants would ever become destitute.