Vichy’s first comprehensive anti-Jewish statute ( Statut des Juifs ), passed on October 3, 1940, defined a Jew as a person with three grandparents "of the Jewish race," or with two Jewish grandparents if the spouse was also Jewish. In the latter provision, and in its explicit reference to race, the Vichy definition was both harsher and more inclusive than that stipulated by the Germans in the occupied zone of France and elsewhere. The law went on to provide the basis for drastically reducing the role of Jews in French society. It excluded Jews from top positions in the French civil service, the corps of officers and noncommissioned officers in the army, and professions that helped shape public opinion—teaching, the press, radio, cinema, and theater. Jews could hold menial public-service positions, provided they had served in the armed forces between 1914 and 1918, or had distinguished themselves in the campaign of 1939–1940. The statute also stated that a quota system would be devised to limit the presence of Jews in the liberal professions (law, medicine, etc.). Formulated purely on French initiative, the law was hastily prepared in the Justice Ministry of Raphael Alibert, a militant antisemite, a friend of the monarchist and fascist-leaning Action Française movement, and the formulator of the Vichy motto " Travail, Famille, Patrie " ("Work, Family, Fatherland").
VichyΓÇÖs efforts to apply this statute effectively and toughen some of its provisions led to a second Statut des Juifs , on June 2, 1941. It emerged from Xavier VallatΓÇÖs Commissariat General aux Questions Juives (Commissariat for Jewish Affairs; CGQJ), and was carefully drafted in a series of cabinet meetings and consultations with Justice Minister Joseph Barthelemy. After tightening the definition of Jewishness and tinkering with the provisions for the purging of Jews from public posts, the law opened the way for a massive removal of Jews from the liberal professions, commerce, and industry. Only a handful of well-established French Jews could benefit from the exemptions provided by the statute. Even Jewish prisoners of war, if returned from captivity, faced the rigors of the anti-Jewish law.
Keenly attentive to detail, Vallat was determined to close every loophole through which Jews might escape the jurisdiction of the anti-Jewish program. Never fully satisfied with the handiwork of the CGQJ, the coordinator of the antisemitic legislation elaborated a new Statut des Juifs over the fall and winter of 1941. Although this law never saw the light of day, its successive drafts point to a continuing effort to tighten the definition and ease the task of legal definitionΓÇöas, for example, in the case of the children of foreigners whose grandparentsΓÇÖ racial makeup could not be determined. Mean-spirited and beset with contradictions on the matter of race and religion, the statutory core of the Vichy regimeΓÇÖs policy toward the Jews reflected its legalistic approach toward, and animus against, all Jews, whether or not they were French citizens.
