GRAND RABBIN TESTIFIES IN PAPON TRIAL

Joseph Sitruk, Chief Rabbi of France for the last 10 years, has added his voice to those who have provided testimony in the trial of Maurice Papon in Bordeaux. In a moving 30 minute address to the court, he managed to combine a wide-ranging overview of the role of France’s Jews in the development of his country, analyze the Talmudic roots of the French revolution - before going on to look at Papon directly in the eye and accuse him of being guilty of what he referred to as the implementation of ‘administrative death’ which, he argued, was every bit as murderous as the deliberate crushing of a child’s skull.

"This was without doubt one of the most extraordinary and emotional experiences I have ever had", France’s grand rabbin told the Jewish Chronicle in an exclusive interview in his heavily guarded Paris offices last week. "Because rightly or wrongly I felt as if I was speaking on behalf of the six million victims and I knew that this was probably the last great trial in which the principal players of the holocaust were involved."

Rattling through the centuries at a lightening pace Sitruk, who only learned to read Hebrew at the age of 16, outlined the fundamentals of Judaism, arguing that the Jews are not a race but a spiritual family. He explained that far from seeking to be isolated from the world, French Jews had always gone out of their way to be at the forefront of civilization, reminding the Court that the Jews were in France long before France existed as an independent nation state. Using his not inconsiderable powers of oratory, Sitruk rhetorically asked the court who had inspired the ideas of the French revolution - that famous triad of liberty, fraternity and equality. "Why, the Torah, of course." Moving on to the collaborationist regime of Vichy he said that French Jews had been shocked not because France had betrayed them but because Petain had betrayed France.

Then, in the most explosive part of his testimony, he turned towards Papon and spoke to him. The prevailing atmosphere in France, he said, was one of forgiveness. The Bishops had asked for forgiveness - lawyers and doctors too. "But there can be no forgiveness without repentance", Sitruk thundered, "which you have shown no signs of at all." Nor would the ‘only obeying orders’ defence wash - it was rejected at Nuremberg and it would be rejected in Bordeaux. "For it is better to die with honour than to live with dishonour", the Chief Rabbi explained.

Asked whether or not he had had any reservations about the wisdom of proceeding with the Papon trial, the Chief Rabbi admitted that he had, aware that it would inevitably produce a chorus in some circles of ‘there go the Jews yet again’. "But this is not a Jewish trial", Sitruk reminds himself, "it was agreed upon at the very highest level in the French government and it was quite right that this should be so. Of course it would have been better for it to have taken place in the immediate aftermath of the war but mieux vaut tard que jamais."

Now in the third year of his second seven year term of office, Sitruk is an extremely popular Grand Rabbin in France, where he is perceived as an effective spokesman for the community in a country which continues to witness the relentless rise of the far right in the form of its pugnacious leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Although his own family was not directly affected by the holocaust - his formative years were spent in Tunisia and Nice - he told the JC that every time he sets foot in the French capital his thoughts are with those who suffered during the second world war. "It was absolute tyranny for our people. Some times people would pop out for nothing more than a baguette - be rounded up - and never seen or heard of again."

Although there were no deportations from Tunisia Sitruk’s father was obliged to work as an enforced labourer and the family eventually settled in Nice during the sixties. His upbringing was hardly the stuff of which future grands rabbins are made - after all, he hardly ever set foot in a synagogue as a young boy and was obliged to read his Bar Mitzvah portion phonetically.

"So thinking of Paris during the war years can be very upsetting indeed", Sitruk admits. "But at the same time it is a great honour to know that we have survived and that today we are free. In fact when I received the President of Israel a few years ago the Champs Elysees was awash with French and Israeli flags. To think that just a few years earlier the Star of David had been issued to humiliate and isolate the Jews - it was then that I realized what an extraordinary thing history is - and this has made me believe in God even more."

With his lively and expressive brown eyes darting around his office, in which a copy of the original Napoleonic decree creating the office of Grand Rabbin de France proudly hangs, Sitruk was anxious put across the issues close to his heart for the remaining years of his tenure - youth and education. "Plus to bring together every single part of this community so that it can be a truly great brotherhood once again."