Joseph Antignac (29 July 1895 – 16 July 1976), was a French soldier and businessman who served as Commissioner-General for Jewish Affair under the

Vichy government Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...

between May and August 1944.

Biography

Joseph Antignac was born on 29 July 1895 in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, France. Initially a soldier, he became the president of a wood-veneer and insulation company in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in 1935. Fighting the Germans from 3 September 1939, he was demobilized in October 1940. A refugee in

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; oc, Peireguers or ) is a communes of France, commune in the Dordogne departments of France, department, in the administrative regions of France, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux i ...

after the

Fall of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World ...

, Antignac lost his entire business in the German invasion of Belgium and decided to apply for a job in the Commissariat-General for Jewish Affair. In October 1941, he was appointed director of the Police for Jewish Affairs in

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

. In August 1942, he became director of the Investigation and Control Section (S.E.C.) for the ''

Zone libre The ''zone libre'' (, ''free zone'') was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered by ...

''; then director of cabinet in the Commissariat-General for Jewish Affair from January 1943 to 1 April 1944. In April and May 1943, he wrote three reports to SS-Obersturmführer Heinz Röthke in which he denounced the hiding of foreign Jewish children by friends of Juliette Stern within the ''

Union générale des israélites de France The (General Union of French Jews; UGIF) was a body created by the antisemitic French politician Xavier Vallat under the Vichy regime after the Fall of France in World War II. UGIF was created by decree on 29 November 1941 following a Ge ...

'' (UGIF, General Organization of Jews in France). As

Charles du Paty de Clam Charles Mercier du Paty de Clam (16 February 1895 – 8 April 1948), was a French soldier and civil servant who served as Commissioner-General for Jewish Affairs under the Vichy government between March and May 1944. Biography Charles du Paty d ...

, Commissioner-General for Jewish Affair, was accused of passivity and disinterest towards the

aryanisation Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...

process, Joseph Antignac replaced him on 17 May 1944. Joseph Antignac tried to make all documents related to the organization disappear in August 1944 as the Allies were heading to Paris. Following the Liberation of the French capital on 19–25 August 1944, he was arrested on November 20, then interned in

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...

. Suffering from tuberculosis, he asked for his release in the spring of 1945, which he would only obtain three years later. Antignac was condemned to

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

on 9 July 1949 after he unsuccessfully tried to convince the judges he was not an anti-Semite and that he ignored the fate of Jews. His conviction was eventually commuted to hard labor and ''

indignité nationale ''Indignité nationale'' ( French "national unworthiness") was a legally defined offense, created at the Liberation in the context of the "''Épuration légale''". The offence of ''Indignité nationale'' was meant to fill a legal void: while t ...

'' due to his poor health. He was granted amnesty in 1954 after ten years of internment; the rest of his life is unknown. He died on 16 July 1976 in the Cochin Hospital in the

14th arrondissement of Paris The 14th arrondissement of Paris ( ), officially named ''arrondissement de l'Observatoire'' (; meaning "arrondissement of the Observatory", after the Paris Observatory), is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. It is situa ...

.Archives de Paris 14e, acte de décès 2461, année 1976 (vue 18/31)
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antignac, Joseph 1895 births Holocaust perpetrators in France French politicians convicted of crimes French prisoners sentenced to death People convicted of treason against France Prisoners sentenced to death by France 1976 deaths