The Jews of Paris and the Final Solution / J. Adler. – New York, 1987. – p. 41, 79 The Holocaust, the French and the Jews / S. Zuccotti. – New York, 1993. – p. 63, 64
In 1941-11-29 a Vichy Law established the Union Générale des Israélites de France, a national Jewish representation, with separate branches in the northern and southern zones. Among the various reasons given by Vichy for the establishment of this representation was the increased poverty resulting from diverse anti-Jewish measurements. At any rate this was advanced as one of the reasons by those Jews who chose to lead this Vichy creation. Indeed the problem was serious. The suffering Jewish population could only call on the network of immigrant organizations, operating semi-legally or illegally, or upon this newly and legally formed UGIF. The UGIF provided food, cooked meals, clothing, medical care, and financial subsidies to indigent Jewish families, literally keeping them alive but inadvertently hindering their perception of their precarious status and security. UGIF-North remained legal to the end, operating openly and meeting most German demands. Throughout the occupation, UGIF-South remained far more independent of German control, more loosely organized, and more deeply rooted in the Jewish community as a whole than UGIF-North.
Union Générale des Israélites de France