France's highest judicial body has formally recognized the country's role in deporting Jews to the Nazi death camps during World War II. However, the Council of State in effect ruled out further compensation payments for survivors and heirs. In their ruling, the judges said that Nazi officials did not force officials of the Vichy regime in southern France - the north being occupied by Nazi Germany - to betray their fellow citizens, but that anti-Semitic persecution was carried out willingly. Nearly 70 years ago, the Vichy government helped deport about 76,000 people, including 11,000 children, from Nazi-occupied France to concentration camps. Fewer than 3,000 returned alive.
A Paris court had applied to the Council of State for its opinion on a request for compensation by the daughter of a deportee who died at the Auschwitz death camp. She also sought damages for her own suffering during and after the occupation. The Council of State left it up to the Paris court to rule on her request, but in its decision said it "considers that because the acts and actions by the State led to the deportation of people considered Jews by the Vichy regime, they constituted errors and became its responsibility''. It called for a "solemn recognition of the state's responsibility and of collective prejudice suffered'' by the deportees.
