Political tensions cloud tribute to slain Holocaust escapee
Source: Associated Press
Updated 10:24 am, Wednesday, March 28, 2018
PARIS (AP) — Family members, friends and France's president honored an 85-year-old woman who escaped the Nazis 76 years ago but was stabbed to death last week in her Paris apartment, apparently targeted because she was Jewish.
Mireille Knoll's death has taken on national importance, reminding France of both historic anti-Semitism and its resurgence in some quarters in recent years.
French President Emmanuel Macron decried the "barbaric" views that fueled an Islamic extremist's supermarket hostage-taking last week as well as Knoll's killing. In a speech at the 19th century Invalides monument Wednesday, Macron said Knoll's attacker "murdered an innocent and vulnerable woman because she was Jewish, and in doing so profaned our sacred values and our history."
Later, Macron made a surprise appearance at Knoll's funeral ceremony in the Jewish section of the cemetery in the Paris suburb of Bagneux, where somber-faced guests gathered to pay their respects.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/French-far-right-to-join-tribute-to-slain-Jewish-12787003.php
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