French justice has recognised the January 1943 round-ups in Marseille’s Old Port district as crimes against humanity, in a long-sought decision welcomed by survivors and their descendants.
The ruling was announced on Wednesday by France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor, Olivier Christen, who presented the findings of an investigation opened in 2019.
However, the inquiry did not identify any living individuals who could be held responsible for taking part in the operation.
The round-ups took place from 22 to 24 January 1943 in several parts of Marseille’s historic centre, on the orders of the Nazis and with the active collaboration of the Vichy regime.
The affected districts were later blown up. In total, 20,000 people lost their homes, several thousand were temporarily interned in Fréjus in southern France, and 1,600 were deported.
Christen said the round-ups carried out in the Saint-Jean district on 23 and 24 January 1943, together with the looting and destruction of the neighbourhood from February that year, “undoubtedly constitute crimes against humanity.”
He said the events remain “relatively unknown to our fellow citizens,” despite the scale of the operation.
The abuses were carried out in areas inhabited largely by poor and immigrant communities, whom the authorities treated as lesser people, he said.
The investigation by the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity began in 2019 after a complaint was filed by Marseille lawyer Pascal Luongo, joined by 19 survivors and descendants.
Luongo told French news agency AFP that the recognition of crimes against humanity amounted to a form of moral reparation.
