To Free the People, Hunt the Jew! Propaganda poster blaming Jews for French peasants’ problems

French announcement poster blaming Jews for the problems of farmers and peasants published by Centre Payson in September 1942. The text claims that Jews unfairly benefit from the peasant’s labor, manipulate the black market for their benefit, and are to blame for the war. After the occupation of France, German authorities began releasing propaganda to provoke antiemetic sentiment among the public. Germany invaded France in May 1940. In June France signed an armistice which gave the Germans control of northern and western France, including Paris. The unoccupied territory was governed from the city of Vichy by a collaborationist regime under Marshal Henri Philippe Petain. Petain’s administration came to be known as the Vichy government. In 1940 the Vichy government passed anti-Semitic legislation that excluded Jews from public life, dismissed them from positions in the civil service and military and barred them from occupations in industry, commerce, law, medicine, and teaching. In July 1941 the Vichy regime instituted a program of “Aryanization” seizing Jewish owned property for the French state. In June 1942 Jews in occupied France were required to wear Star of David badges. German officials and French police conducted roundups of Jews in the occupied and unoccupied regions. Some were taken to detention camps in Gurs, Les Miles, Saint-Cyprien and others while most were deported to killing centers in the east. In November German and allied Italian troops occupied the region under Vichy control. France was liberated on August 25, 1944. During the occupation, 77,000 Jews living in French territory were murdered.