Operation Yellow Star / Black Thursday

If [Rajsfus] still wishes to recall how scrupulously and even with zeal the French police applied Nazi orders, he also wants to warn us against certain xenophobic or discriminatory speech still heard recently that could lead to behavior of that bygone age. Adept reporting and personal experience make for a gripping read While each book is strong enough to stand on its own, Operation Yellow Star and Black Thursday together make an unusual, important, credibly researched, and skillfully written contribution to Holocaust literature. Maurice Rajsfus has devoted his life to denouncing and combating racism, fascism, intolerance, and police brutality, while putting in his texts a good dose of caustic irony. An unsparing indictment of Paris police during the Nazi occupation. The authors memory of July 16 is harrowing. Besides commemorating his familys murder, Rajsfus raises awareness about how the enemies of human rights are once more gaining ground, spouting xenophobia that is easily transferable to any minority group. A heartfelt, timely plea to remember past atrocities. Well researched and deeply personal, the accounts are powerful in their detail. Well documented essential for understanding and above all not forgetting. To this day there are still no pictures of the days of horror at the Velodrome dHiver. Through his sobering, exhaustive research Rajsfus chronicles the arrests, harassment, and deportations of Jews [in France]. Rajsfus eyewitness, unblinking account of the events in Vichy France is a journalistic, yet passionately written jaccuse against the French collaborators and those who want to erase the [eras] devastating atrocities. -- Lew Whittington * New York Journal of Books *

Maurice Rajsfus (1928-2020) was an author and activist who worked as an investigative journalist at multiple French outlets, including at Le Monde. Of his many books, many dealt with the Vichy regime and its legacy in French police culture, focusing on police violence against immigrants and people of color. He also wrote about Drancy concentration camp and Israel-Palestine, as well as co-authoring several illustrated books about history. In 1990, Rajsfus and several friends founded "Ras l'Front," the anti-racist association of far-left-wing organizations extremely active in the 1990s against the rise of Le Pen and fascist/nationalist parties in France. They worked together and promoted leftist causes through a monthly publication as well as actions. He served as chairman from 1991-1999. From 1994-2012 Rajsfus created and circulated Que fait la police?, a "Cop Watch" bulletin with selections from his archive of over 40,000 press clippings detailing human rights abuses by French police. His books about the Vel d'Hiv raid and his experiences during WWII have been brought together to form the basis of a YA comic (Tartamudo editions) as well as a play written and directed by Philippe Ogouz, which was then adapted for film in 2010, Souvenirs d'un vieil enfant: La rafle du Vel' d'Hiv (Memories of an Old Child: The Roundup of the Vel' d'Hiv), directed by Alain Guesnier. Maurice Rajsfus is survived by two sons as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Read more about Rajsfus and his legacy at the link posted in our tribute.

Author's Preface to the English Edition Book One - Operation Yellow Star Note Honor and Discipline In the Service of Immoral Laws The Stages of Humiliation Toward the Yellow Star A Little History The Preliminaries Preparations Hunting Them Down The Requests for Special Dispensation Non-Jews Wearing the Badge A Compliant Press Toward Liberation The Red Line Book Two - Black Thursday: The Round-up of July 16, 1942 Preface Part One Twelve Hours of Anxiety [untitled chapters 1-15] Part Two: No Witnesses, No Crime! Local Amnesia The Police Have Forgotten The Bus Drivers Did Their Job Vincennes City Hall Has No Information What About the Churches? My City Has Lost Its Memory Part Three: Survivor of the Absurd Memories, a User's Guide Lost Children... Appendix - Interview with Maurice Rajsfus