Secret details have finally been made public of France’s collaboration in the wartime Holocaust - when thousands of Jews were deported to their deaths.
Hidden archives kept under lock and key for up to 75 years were revealed for the first time as France faced up to its Nazi past during World War 2 .
The documents all relate to the puppet Vichy government led by Marshal Philippe Petain between 1940 and 1944 when France was under Nazi occupation.
French police and paramilitary organisations were among Third Reich collaborators who rounded up “enemies of the state” and sent them to Germany for extermination.
Many of the 76,000 Jews killed came from major cities including Paris, where an occupying German garrison worked closely with their French allies.
Numerous crimes were also committed in the so called “free zone” in the southern half of France where Petain ran his puppet government in the spa town of Vichy.
Evil: French Vichy leader Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain (left) with Adolf Hitler
A new decree means the secret archives can be “freely consulted” by civil servants and historical researchers “subject to the declassification of documents covered by national defence secrecy rules”.
The documents detail how French Jews were pinpointed and betrayed - and list the names of those responsible.
The decision to open up the archives comes six years after France’s Council of State - the highest judicial body - said the Vichy government “held responsibility’” for deportations and could not solely blame them on the Germans.
It ruled Nazi officials did not force the French to betray their fellow citizens, but that anti-Semitic persecution was carried out willingly by organisations including Paris police and SNCF, the national railway.
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Post-war French governments had earlier refused to acknowledge any role in the Holocaust by the Vichy regime.
Dark hours: President Jacques Chirac says the collaboration sullies French history
But the Council called for a “solemn recognition of the state’s responsibility and of collective prejudice suffered” by the deportees.
Lawyers in Israel and the United States are still trying to get compensation payments from the the French government for the survivors or families of victims.
President Jacques Chirac - who was in office from 1995-2007 - made the most outspoken reference to the Holocaust by a French head of state, saying: “These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions.
“Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state.”
France still boasts a Jewish population of around 500,000 - the largest in western Europe. Many complain of discrimination and persecution, saying anti-Semitism remains prevalent in France.
