The Local France

Slavery monument in France desecrated with Nazi slogan

Tue, 27 Dec 2016 09:32:27 +0100

A southern French town announced an investigation Monday after a sculpture of a black man that commemorates the abolition of slavery was desecrated with Nazi graffiti and white paint.

75 years later: Jewish family gets painting looted by Nazis

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:06:55 +0100

A painting by Camille Pissarro will return to a Jewish family in France whose art collection was looted by the Nazis in 1941, a lawyer who led the negotiations said.

France opens Vichy files to face its painful past

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 10:15:15 +0100

France's decision to open up archives from its World War II collaboration with Nazi occupiers is being seen as breaking one of the last taboos that has poisoned debate about the era for years.

Nazi tombstone stolen from Normandy cemetery

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 10:33:31 +0200

The gravestone of a formidable Nazi SS tank commander has been stolen from a German cemetery in the small Normandy town of La Cambe, municipal sources said on Tuesday.

Nazi victims' remains found at French institute

Sun, 19 Jul 2015 14:41:01 +0200

Remains belonging to victims of Nazi anatomy professor August Hirt have been found at a forensic medicine institute in eastern France, local authorities said in a statement Saturday.

Nazi general didn't save Paris: historian

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 18:02:00 +0200

The last Nazi commander in charge of Paris famously claimed he saved the City of Light from an insane Hitler who wanted it flattened. A French historian, however, told The Local that version of events is pure fantasy from the self-aggrandizing former general.

Map plots French Jewish children taken by Nazis

Mon, 17 Feb 2014 12:36:00 +0100

A new interactive online map has helped visualize the horror of the Holocaust for French Jews by marking the address of every one of the 11,458 Jewish children deported from France between July 1942 and August 1944.

State told to pay collector €8k for binning Nazi flag

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:46:00 +0100

A collector of war memorabilia from Normandy, northern France, has been awarded €8,000 in compensation after a French court ruled that authorities had "illegally" ordered the destruction of a Nazi flag from his prized collection of World World II memorabilia.

French police release neo-Nazi Vikernes

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:45:13 +0200

The Norwegian neo-Nazi Kristian 'Varg' Vikernes was released by French police late on Thursday after spending two days in custody. Despite the French government describing him as "dangerous" police found no evidence he was planning a terror attack.

Investigators visit French site of Nazi massacre

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:52:00 +0100

German investigators on Tuesday gathered in the ruined French hamlet of Oradour-sur-Glane to collect evidence in a re-opened case probing the Nazi massacre that wiped out almost the whole village seven decades ago.

Le Pen: 'I'll sue Madonna over Nazi video'

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:57:07 +0200

Far-right former leader Jean-Marie Le Pen wants to sue pop star Madonna over a video that features a photomontage of Hitler and his daughter Marine Le Pen with a swastika.

96-year-old WWII resistance fighter dies

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:58:00 +0200

Former resistance fighter Lise London, the widow of Arthur London who wrote "The Confession" about his 1951 Stalinist show trial, died on Saturday, aged 96, the French Communist party said Sunday.

Investigation begins of Nazi-themed party attended by British MP

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:15:00 +0100

French prosecutors said Wednesday they had opened a formal probe into a Nazi-themed party attended by a British Conservative lawmaker that led to him losing his post as a parliamentary aide.

Nazi figurines for sale on French website

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:59:00 +0100

A website run by a senior police officer's wife has been selling figurines of top Nazis.

France probes Nazi-themed party attended by British MP

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:33:00 +0100

French prosecutors said on Thursday they had opened an investigation into a Nazi-themed party attended by British MP Aidan Burley that led to him losing his post as a parliamentary aide.

German raids on France Nazi massacre suspects

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:47:00 +0100

German authorities said Monday they had raided the homes of six men suspected of taking part in a Nazi massacre of 642 mainly women and children in a French village in 1944.

Last gay Nazi death camp survivor dies in France

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:04:14 +0200

Rudolf Brazda, last known survivor of the so-called "Pink Triangles" – gays interned in Nazi camps because of their homosexuality – died in France Wednesday aged 98, officials said.

Learn lessons from Nazi Roma killings: Council of Europe

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:59:20 +0200

The Council of Europe expressed concern Tuesday about discrimination against Roma, urging its member states to draw lessons from the Nazi massacre of gypsies during World War II.