\n France's anti-terror prosecutor on Wednesday announced that a World War II roundup of people in 1943 by occupying Nazi forces and their French collaborators was now classified as crimes against humanity even though no perpetrators had survived to be brought to justice.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 20,000 people were displaced and 1,600 deported, including Jews who were then exterminated in death camps, in the January 1943 roundups in Marseille's Old Port district.\n<\/p>\n
\n But while the recognition had long been sought by survivors and their descendants, the investigation has failed to identify any surviving individuals responsible, said Olivier Christen, the national anti-terror prosecutor.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, the legal criteria for \"crimes against humanity\" were met, regarding both the roundups and the looting and destruction of the 1,500 buildings in the Saint-Jean district, located behind the Old Port, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n These events remain \"relatively unknown to our fellow citizens... even though we are dealing with a roundup of absolutely colossal scale,\" Christen told reporters.\n<\/p>\n
\n The operation mobilised around 12,000 French police officers and gendarmes working for the collaborationist Vichy regime and was ordered by SS chief Heinrich Himmler himself.\n<\/p>\n
\n The investigation was launched in 2019 following a complaint filed by Marseille lawyer Pascal Luongo, joined by 19 survivors or their descendants.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It is extraordinary that the French justice system is finally acknowledging the tragedy at the port of Marseille,\" said 89-year-old Antoine Mignemi, who was five years old at the time.\n<\/p>\n
\n He remembered the \"distraught look on his terrified mother's face\" when she came to wake him at six in the morning.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nearly 800 Jews were sent to their deaths in Nazi extermination camps. In total, 20,000 people were expelled from the area which was a known hub for people of immigrant origin.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Like a herd of sheep, French police marched us to the port quayside. There, we were handed over to the Nazis,\" said Mignemi.\n<\/p>\n
\n Luongo added: \"This recognition of crimes against humanity serves as a form of moral reparation.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France's anti-terror prosecutor on Wednesday announced that a World War II roundup of people in 1943 by occupying Nazi forces and their French collaborators was now classified as crimes against humanity even though no perpetrators had survived to be brought to justice. Some 20,000 people were displaced and 1,600 deported, including Jews who were then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-166239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n