France: From German Fascist Occupation to Islamofascist Occupation

July 1940: After the military ceremony yesterday, I went to services at the little synagogue, which was full to bursting. In the prayer for our country, "France" was substituted for the word "Republic". I encountered friends evacuated from Paris and Luneville ... French Jewry is enduring a particular kind of anguish. It accepts suffering along with everyone else but dreads the discrimination the enemy may demand. This fear makes me particularly dread the future, for myself and for my sons. But I still have confidence. France cannot accept just anything, and it is not for nothing that the bones of my family have mingled with its soil for more than a century -- and that I have served in two wars. For my wife, my sons, and myself, I cannot imagine life in another climate; pulling up these roots would be worse than an amputation.

February 1941: I've been told that on the day the Statut des Juifs was published the government spokesman, who receives the foreign press every day at the evacuated' Quai d'Orsay in Vichy, answered a question from an American journalist by saying 'The Statut was neither demanded nor imposed on us by the occupying authorities. The government takes full responsibility for it. It was decided upon, after mature reflection, in response to the needs of the nation'. It was useful to identify this historical point, and we shall know enough not to forget it. It appears that this comment, when received in New York, was considered sufficient cause for demonstrations and protest meetings. Poor France!
Thus I have been led to wonder, what are the causes of such an iniquity, what are the deep reasons why an armistice regime would deny, in such a brutal fashion, a humane tradition going back more than a century; for a soldier to forget the innumerable sacrifices, for thinkers to forget [Henri] Bergson, and a whole galaxy of fine minds ... Since our calamity in June 1940, the Jews of France have had neither the leaders nor the defenders they deserve....
1. The moral influence of German propaganda, through imitation. Without admitting it, people are adopting the conquerors' methods without stooping so low as to accept any of their myths that are condemned by science.
2. The financial activities of the German propaganda services, which have succeeded in poisoning the minds of certain journalists, consciously or unconsciously, during the past eight years by resurrecting and distributing the pernicious works of Celine, Chateaubriand, the Gringoire campaigns [nationalist anti-Semitic journal], the 'Rothschild' and 'Mandel' slogans, etc.
3. The explicit demands of Action francaise, which for the past forty years has been calling for discrimination against Jews in France.
4. Certain facts that unfortunately have seemed to justify an apparently moderate racism: the actions of Leon Blum and the Popular Front, which were called Jewish; the presence of too many Jews in the press agencies, the film industry, banking, and behind the scenes politically, and, it must be said, their inborn exuberance; the too-hasty immigration of autocrats; the high percentage of Jewish names among citizens naturalized since 1918 [as a result of immigration from central Europe].
5. The inability of the French administration, despite all warnings received from those who were thinking clearly, to complete a Statut des Etrangers [Law on Foreigners] and to have an immigration policy...
To sum up, France has taken revenge on the Jews for the [French] blindness and inability to understand, since the more or less disguised closing of the United States to immigration from Europe, that France could profit from these human resources if it would manage and select them -- before assimilating them.

February 1942: 1. By the communication referred to above [Measures against the Jews], the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces in France asks that a certain number of measures be taken with regard to Jews in the Occupied Zone, such as: the obligation to wear a distinctive symbol, being banned from frequenting public places, excepting certain premises particularly reserved for them, and the institution of a special curfew.
2. I have the honor of informing you that I am not in agreement with these proposals.
3. I feel that the various strict measures already in force to date against the Jews are sufficient for the intended purpose, which is to remove them from public employment and from positions of authority in industry and commerce in this country.
4. There can be no question of going further without deeply offending French public opinion, which will see in these measures only humiliations without real efficacy, either for the future of the country or for the security of the occupying troops. The very excess of these decisions would certainly go against the intended purpose and would run the risk of provoking a movement in support of the Jews, who would be considered martyrs.

February 1943, Marseilles:  A quick report on what has happened -- just for myself, since I am not entitled to comment on it. On Friday, January 22, beginning in the early morning hours, there were massive raids and arrests all over Marseilles, to be expected due to the arrival during the preceding days of mobile guard units, coming by bus or train from Toulouse, Lyon, Nancy, and even from Paris. Reliable sources told us that a conference was held on the 21st at the railroad station to consider the use of eighteen trains prepared to leave for an unknown destination. We didn't know whether these were for [German] redeployments, or for sending off suspects arrested following the measures being planned.
Shortly before noon both the German and French police assigned to the railroad station began making arrests, entirely indiscriminately, and transporting the arrested persons by truck to the Surete and then to Baumettes Prison for identity checks. Jews were being arrested merely on sight of their stamped identity cards. In the evening the arrests continued, and there were also raids in certain neighbourhoods during the night. We tried urgently to speak with the police at their administrative offices but got no results. We were told that these were general measures being taken by the police, by agreement with the German authorities, toward the definitive cleansing of the city of Marseilles.
Diary of a Witness, 1940 - 1942 Raymond-Raoul Lambert

Rioters outside a Paris synagogue. Photo: Facebook. July 2014

An anti-Israel demonstration at the city’s Bastille Square quickly turned violent with protesters seeking out and attacking Jewish targets and screaming “death to the Jews” and “Hitler was right” according to community newspaper, JSS News.
Signs in support of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood were on display as well as a replica of a Palestinian rocket similar to those launched from Gaza at Israel in recent weeks, according to the report.
Hundreds of Parisian Jews were trapped in a synagogue while rioters threw stones and bricks. The group was initially thought to be held hostage and was freed to leave the center only after police intervention at 9 p.m. A Jewish owned store on rue de la Roquette was trashed by 50 men with iron bars and a young man was hospitalized nearby, according to reports. Another synagogue in Paris was also attacked and a source told The Algemeiner that a similar demonstration in Marseille also turned violent.
“What we are witnessing in Paris today is extremely, extremely serious. Jews are in peril for their lives,” New York-based French Jewish artist and activist Ron Agam told The Algemeiner.
Criticizing French police, Agam said, “French authorities acted like amateurs in failing to predict collateral violence against the Jewish community. I am outraged like I never have been against the Government for being so careless when they knew how radical this demonstration against Israel was going to be.”
“To see so many French people, most of them Muslims, calling for a pogrom against Jews and supporting a criminal and terrorist organization is the most troublesome situation,” he said, “French Jews are in serious danger.”
The Algemeiner -- July 2014

We had yet another all-day deluge yesterday, rain coming down so heavily there wasn't an opportunity -- since there were no breaks in the rain -- to get out into the ravine with Jackie and Jillie. They didn't exactly mope about the house, though. They did get up to some hi-jinks between them, especially once they'd been out in the backyard to perform their duties; whenever they get wet, even when they're towelled off afterward, they become energized. So they did their share of racing about the house.

By morning, when it was time to venture outdoors for the first time before breakfast, the rain had stopped. We're told by Environment Canada that the atmosphere should warm up a bit as the day progresses, and we'll be in line for a series of thunderstorms, not the constant rain that has been pummeling us.

So off we went to the ravine after breakfast, into the soggy forest where the trails in some areas are pure, deep mush-clay. Still, it was good to get out, and we all felt the better for it. We haven't been seeing many others out on these days. No doubt deterred by the prospect of wading through muck. Likely also not relishing the idea of having to wash the mud off their dogs on return home. Since our two are so small, it isn't difficult to accomplish.

The creek is full of muddy water rushing along and it will look that way for quite a while, given the tons of muck that have collapsed into it from the hillside that is still experiencing slumps, behind our street. Work is destined to begin soon on installing a culvert, but the construction machinery would likely get bogged down in present conditions.

The side trail that has been blocked off requiring us to seek an alternate, non-trail route is unnecessarily cautious on the part of the construction company set to begin work. It's just a nuisance for those people like us who continue our daily rambles.

None of the wildflowers are too happy about this weather, although the trees and shrubs are steadily leafing out. The flowers prefer a little bit of sun. We've come across some quite fascinating clumps of fungi that feed off fallen trunks and branches in decomposition, but few mushrooms as yet, despite all this moisture inundating the landscape.

At the top of the problematical hillside we could see even from the vantage point of looking across from the entrance trail to the ravine, that new slumps have occurred; nothing spectacular, just a continuation of what began two weeks ago. On the other hand, on one of the irregular trails juxtaposing the creek the creekbank has fallen in, taking a portion of the trail with it. Which will force people to use the approved trail, established further up on the hill, after an earlier collapse that occurred about six years ago.

While we were out, a bit of a shower began. We just put the raincoats we'd brought along for Jackie and Jillie on them, but the rain didn't amount to much. There was a higher, lighter cloud ceiling when we set out on our walk and that remained constant throughout the walk, until our return home. Concluding a pleasant enough ramble in the woods for the day.

The constant, unremitting rain events that we have been receiving have certainly not been confined to this geographic area in which we live alone. Environment Canada reports that from the east coast to the west coast and central Canada as well, this vast country has been steeped in enough rain to present as a challenge to the ground to absorb it.

Communities built on flood plains, houses built alongside bodies of water, are all threatened. There have been mass evacuations in Quebec and Ontario. People's pride in living close to water where they can indulge their boating passions and admire their peerless views across a watery landscape are now ruing their choice.

And municipalities that threw intelligent caution to the winds by issuing building permits where none should be permitted, are themselves are now cursing their prior lack of common-sense caution. Remedial action is costly. Personnel reacting to emergency situations by packing sandbags in vulnerable areas, and rescuing people whose streets have been inundated with floodwater are now in evidence.

Householders are advised to trash any of their personal belongings that come in contact with floodwaters; everything from carpeting to mattresses, to drugs, or anything else that can harbour water-borne bacteria.

We're expecting, in our immediate region, another 30 to 50 mm of rain between Friday and Sunday, with a peak expecting around Sunday or Monday. We had another one-day break in the weather yesterday, with some sun and milder temperatures, allowing us to get out with our puppies for a nice long ravine ramble.

The remedial work on the ravine's dissolving hillside cannot commence when conditions are like this. It is more than evident that the three homes that were evacuated for cautionary-safety reasons will remain vacant for quite a while, until such time as the engineering firm assures the city that it is safe for the home-owners to return.

We were delighted to come across the first of the delicate, minuscule woodland violets; a tiny clump of white, another of mauve, joining the trout lilies and trilliums in giving us a bit of colour in the drab landscape. The coltsfoot are now in decline, so the emerging flowers of the violets are welcome indeed.

Another notice stuffed into our porch mailbox, from the municipality to update us on the conditions in the Bilberry Creek Ravine forest impacting on the street we live on. Warning us to be alert around heavy construction machinery that will be in use throughout this month in an attempt to rectify and prevent further erosion on the hill behind the street, leading into the ravine.

The notice stressed that only the three houses whose residents have been evacuated, directly backing on the ravine where the slump has come closest, are in potential peril. But residents are warned that construction work may impact on their properties, and to take precautionary measures such as for insurance purposes, to take an inspection of their premises with photographs, should some damage ensue. That would affect only the homes built alongside the ravine, not those on the opposite side of the street, where we live.

Still, it's worrying, and one feels dreadfully sorry for our neighbours who must be feeling under great stress. Our neighbours, top of the street at the entrance to the ravine, have some reason for concern, having intended to put their house up for sale for reasons having nothing whatever to do with the ravine slump but everything to do with the fact that as new empty-nesters they want to move to a smaller place closer to where they work, and certainly now the prospect of selling will be impacted deleteriously by what has been occurring there.

When we entered  the ravine yesterday we came across a large tractor-dozer and beyond it, a group of construction workers whom Jackie and Jillie remonstrated with for entering their ravine without their express permission. They gave us a bit of a run-down on what will be happening. So some of the side trails closest to where the work of constructing a sizeable six-foot culvert, lining the area with heavy gravel in the hope that this will stop the Leda clay from dissolving when saturated, will be temporarily fenced off.

They had earlier replaced the temporary fence closing off the top of the hill where another side-trail paralleling the street, with a much taller semi-permanent construction fence with warnings of trespass danger. So off we went on our usual ravine ramble, finding the trails just as muddy as the day before, since on our return the skies had opened up again to inundate the area further, but it was a pleasant walk. A few more of the trilliums have opened, injecting some brilliant colour into the otherwise drab spring landscape.

And when we came to the closed-off portion, unnecessarily shunting us away from the completion of our usual circuit, we simply bush-whacked a bit to get beyond it.

Yesterday morning's sun lulled us into a sense of complacency, in the belief that the preceding days of unrelenting rain were finally concluded. How wrong we were. As soon as we returned home from our morning walk in the woods, the rain resumed throughout the rest of the day. There has been so much rain the ground cannot absorb it, and the forest floor is steeped with pools and mud puddles.

Each succeeding day's rain events simply adds to the saturation. So the hillside slumps are guaranteed to continue. We did see yesterday the first of the horsetails erupting out of the rich humus that has accumulated over the years in the forest. The absolute least favourite of the plants for me, those primitive horsetails. There was a time that only one discrete patch was present, but over the years they have steadily extended their range, and now cover quite a bit of the forest floor, interspersed of course, with other plants.

I began to notice a hint of competition last year, however, when I noted that the growing proliferation of an introduced species, dog strangulation vine, was edging out the horsetails from areas it had previously colonized. The vine on maturity throughout the summer months can bring down erect plants with its weight and its clutching, smothering habit is no boon for other plants.

In our garden, the heucheras, which always come through the cold months buried under feet of snow and ice, are beginning to thrive. One of my favourites, with bronze-gold foliage, looks in fine shape. It was planted several years ago and as it spreads I will be able to take pieces of it to plant elsewhere as I've done with others of the same type.

The Japanese spurge is now in flower, one of the earliest of the garden plants to do that, other than for spring-blooming bulbs, but even our tulips haven't yet bloomed. I'm hoping that some of the white trilliums that we discovered on a hillside in the ravine far from the trails, will make an appearance in the garden, since I transplanted a few last spring.

Things are coming along very nicely in the garden, so far. Even one of the peonies has, surprisingly, a Carl Rosenfeld type, has already made significant presence in the front garden, I was pleased to note. Right beside it is an old tree peony whose huge, fringed pink blooms are absolutely magnificent, is just beginning to show signs of new life.

We were anxious to get out for a ravine walk this morning and so were our two puppies. We were all skunked out of our usual daily woodland ramble for the past several days. Days of nothing but incessant, penetrating rain. And of course it occurred to us, if not to the puppies, that further inundation of the forest floor already completely more than flush with an unusual amount of rain we've had in the past weeks, might be responsible for further hillside slumps.

There are trucks galore parked on the street, and workers from the municipality busy doing preparatory work for remediation behind the three homes that have been evacuated, with tall construction fencing closing them in.

Emerging maple leaf foliage on maple saplings

We didn't in fact, find the ravine all that saturated on its surface. Yes, there were deep runnels in the trails running down hillsides, the creek was running high and wide, and in places the trails were deep in muck, but much evasive action wasn't required, just care in negotiating uphill and downhill clambers.  And it was good to get out. Jackie and Jillie thought so, too. They were everywhere, sniffing about and happy to be free to do so.

We were surprised to discover pink trilliums in bloom, in the very same spot, unsurprisingly, where we've spotted them for the past three years. These are three trilliums in a tight patch; one purple, the other two pink, anomalies and quite beautiful. New trilliums are erupting out of the soil on a daily basis, and those we first saw days ago are now beginning to bloom, their carmine petals opening to find no sun.

The forest floor in some places looks like a swamp. In those areas we're grateful that the trails are marginally elevated, just a tad higher than the surrounding forest floor, so while the trails are extremely wet, they don't lie within deep pools. If it stops raining long enough all the pools will eventually disappear, but we've got notice of continuing rain on the near horizon.

We also saw the first of the ubiquitous and unattractive horsetails that are now emerging. These are really primitive plants. They were used during the Medieval era in scriptoria, as an abrasive, to rub away errors in script on vellum. That reminder of their usefulness is the nicest thing about them I fear. They don't fulfill any of the parameters of aesthetic appeal in nature's botanical cornucopia, for me.

We could hear, as we closed in on completing our circuit, that municipal outdoor workers were cutting down trees on the collapsing hillsides, in preparation obviously, for some other kind of remedial work. And as we strode along a coll nearing the end of our walk, we came across three of the men reconnoitering the area. Their presence struck Jackie and Jillie as presumptuous; they hadn't, after all, asked their permission to intrude on their private Eden.

Partly perhaps it's a time-of-year series of occurrences in the transition from winter to spring bringing the elements of change into conflict with landscapes, that tend to wreak havoc. It's now a year since the devastating wildfire that consumed much of Fort McMurray and which saw tens of thousands of residents in a panic to drive the sole highway in and out of the remote Athabaska oilsands town of 80,000 people. Before the wildfire, named "The Beast" moved off, shoved more by prevailing winds than the valiant efforts of firefighters both local and from other regions, an estimated ten percent of the town had been destroyed.

Now, in our very own personal location within the perimeter of the nation's capital, we are witness to an infinitesimally smaller, but fractionally less frightening natural phenomenon threatening the homes of a few neighbours on our street. We have the vast good fortune, in our location, to have homes built alongside a large natural forested reserve, a woodland ravine whose geology has kept it safe from property development and which compromises for us personally, a profound boost to the quality of our lives.

But the fact that the entire locality sits upon a vast reserve of land whose foundation is a mix of Leda clay and sand, means that the area is prone to slippage when enough rain falls, to inundate and suffuse the ground to an extent that changes the nature of the Leda clay. When it is saturated and when there is no cease of ongoing saturation, Leda clay tends to dissolve and great instability ensues. The hillside along which the street where our homes were built has been slumping disastrously over the past few weeks. So for those homeowners the good fortune aspect of living alongside the ravine may at this juncture seem elusive.

And where houses were built adjacent the ravine contiguous with it and beyond the high point where the land dips precipitously, the recent rains have devastated the hillsides. Slides taking away the hills in great scoops of descending arcs and pouring the dissolved Leda clay along with the forest that sits atop it, have slumped into the ravine proper, barricading in part the stream that runs below.

Three homes down the street from where ours is located, and across from where we live, have been declared unsafe and in danger. On the weekend, an industrial construction-type of blue-coloured chain-link fencing, about 7 feet in height with no entry point, was installed around the front of three of the homes, to ensure that no one can gain entry to them. The homes have been evacuated. A private security firm has been contracted to have a presence on site.

We've seen trucks belonging to the municipality and to a large engineering firm whose employees, with the help of theodolites have been surveying the horizontal and vertical angles of the areas directly being impacted. The hope being that something can be done to ameliorate the situation. However, given the composition of the soil at its very basic level, the very idea that remedial action can be taken seems a leap too far. Nature appears to have us stumped us on this one, as is her inevitable way.