The prosecution requested a fine of 10,000 euros on Wednesday, December 9 against Éric Zemmour, who appeared in Paris for contesting a crime against humanity after having maintained in October 2019 on CNews that Marshal Pétain had "
saved
" the French Jews.
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The controversial polemicist, already convicted of inciting racial hatred at the end of September, made these remarks on October 21, 2019 in front of Bernard-Henri Lévy on the news channel of which he is one of the pillars.
“
One day, on another program, you dared to say that Pétain had saved the French Jews.
It's a monstrosity, it's revisionism,
”the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was carried away in the extract broadcast to the audience.
"
This is once again the real, I'm sorry,
" replied the polemicist.
At the hearing, as during his debate with "
BHL
", Eric Zemmour continued to assert that Pétain, who actively collaborated with the Nazi regime during the Occupation, had saved the "
French
"
Jews
.
At the helm, facing several civil parties (SOS Racisme, Licra, Mrap, etc.), he defended himself from any challenge to crimes against humanity and considered that the debate on the role of Vichy towards French Jewish citizens should be decided by historians and not by justice.
"
I want to repeat what I said, the figures speak for themselves: in France, 40% of foreign Jews who were exterminated and 90% of French Jews who survived
", argues the polemicist.
"
I admit that one can dispute what I say but I do not see how what I say denies that Jews were exterminated by Germans
", he adds, estimating that most historians between 1945 and 1973 said the same thing.
The CNRS researcher Laurent Joly, who testified in court, indicated that the results of the Final Solution in France, "
between the deportees and the people who died on the spot, it is of the order of 78,000 people, ie About 28% of the Jewish population in 1941
”.
Lawyer Stéphane Lilti, who represents the UEJF, recalled for his part that a third of them were French Jews, or about 24,000.
“
In essence, he claims that Pétain saved the French Jews, so this sentence means that no Jew was deported and died as a result.
By these words which are reproached to him, it is 24,000 people who are once again erased
”, underlined the prosecutor in his indictment, asking the court to condemn the polemicist to 100 days-fine to 100 euros.
The judgment will be rendered on February 4.
