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Education Minister Naftali Bennett blasted Thursday France’s recognition of a Nazi collaborator as a World War I hero.
“Marshal Petain sanctioned and facilitated the expulsion and mbad-murder of Jews. It is unacceptable to suggest that previous deeds mitigate such atrocities,” Bennett, who also holds the diaspora affairs portfolio, said.
Bennett, who chairs Habayit Hayehudi party, urged “President Macron not to offer excuse or defense for the Nazis and their supporters – in the past, present, or future.”
President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday it was “legitimate” to pay tribute to Marshal Philippe Petain, who led the French army to victory in World War I’s Battle of Verdun but decades later collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
>> France’s Macron calls tribute to Nazi collaborator Petain ‘legitimate’
Macron’s plan to honor Petain alongside seven other French marshals who directed military campaigns during World War I, which ended 100 years ago on November 11, has unleashed criticism from Jewish groups, political opponents and on social media.
“I consider it entirely legitimate that we pay homage to the marshals who led our army to victory,” Macron said in the eastern town of Charleville-Mezieres that once lay on the front line between French and German troops.
“Marshal Petain was a great soldier in World War I.”
Renowned as a “soldier’s soldier,” Petain was promoted to commander-in-chief of the French armies in mid-1917, after victory at Verdun, rebuilding troop morale after a series of mutinies and other setbacks.
Verdun was the longest battle of World War I, killing more than 300,000 French and German soldiers during 10 months of trench battles. Petain emerged from the Great War as a national hero with streets in towns and cities across France named after him.
Two decades later, with France poised to fall to Nazi German forces in World War Two, Petain was appointed prime minister of France. His administration, based in the unoccupied part of the country known as Vichy France, collaborated with Nazi Germany and its deportation and extermination of the Jews.
After the war, Petain was sentenced to death for treason, though then-President General Charles de Gaulle, a longtime admirer of Petain, reduced the punishment to life in prison.
With reporting by Reuters
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