France: Holocaust Survivor and Activist against Police Violence Die

TIRELESS campaigner against repression of all forms since surviving the Holocaust, Maurice Rajsfus died peacefully yesterday at the age of 94.

French Rajsfus was a writer, historian and anti-establishment militant who authored numerous books on subjects such as the police and attacks on civil liberties.

The prominent activist also addressed the issue of the Jewish genocide which took part in Nazi-occupied areas of France during the Second World War.

In 1994 Maurice Rajsfus co-founded the Observatory of Public Liberties, an organisation dedicated to the eradication repression in all its forms.

Rajsfus was a vocal critic of the policies of the Israeli government and was known to be pro-Palestine, writing several books about the subject.

In 1942, Maurice, who was 14 at the time, and his family were arrested at their home by two police officers. They recognised one of them was their next door neighbour.

Unaware at the time what was going on, Maurice and his family became are victims of what became known as the Vél ‘d’Hiv roundup.

More than 13,000 Jews, including at least 4,000 children, were arrested that day by French police officers working for the Nazi regime.

In his ‘Discordant Diary,’ published some 20 years ago, Rajsfus explained that he had the feeling of being “on hold since the roundup of the Vel ‘d’Hiv, of being the random holder of a long lease extorted from those who sought to destroy me, as they did with my parents, with all my family.”

Maurice Rajsfus leaves a legacy of his lifetime’s work in the many books he authored through the years.