French Police Report Concerning the Identification of the Jews in the Occupied Zone

PARIS POLICE HEADQUARTERS
FRENCH REPUBLIC
Office of the Chief of Police

Paris, October 26 1940
no. 330 A
no. 355A

The Chief of Police
to the Chief of the Military Administration
of the Paris Region
E.M.
pol/in. - Tgb - 4748/40

Regarding your missive of the 6th inst., I am honored to inform you that upon receiving notice of the Ordinance from the Chief of the Military Administration in France (dating September 27, 1940), ordering Jewish registration in the regional police stations by October 20, my services immediately took all the necessary steps to enable this registration to be carried out in the Seine District in the Paris and suburban police stations.

This operation was carried out during October 3rd-19th. By that date, 85,664 French Jews and 64,070 foreign nationals were registered, i.e. a total of 149,734 Jews.

Furthermore, following your letter of October 13th and your communique of October 19th, the Jews were summoned to appear at their regional police stations in order to received identity cards bearing the inscription "Jew" or "Jews", affixed with the red seal.

This formality, which is currently being executed, will be terminated by the upcoming November 7th.

Moreover, Jewish commercial enterprises have been ordered to display in their windows, or in very visible places, yellow signs with the inscription in black letters: "Juedisches Geschaeft" - "Jewish Enterprise".

These signs must be in place by the upcoming October 31st.

The census of these enterprises, which had also been demanded, has been carried out under my supervision …

[Inquiries undertaken for this census identified] 7,737 private enterprises and 3,456 companies …

Finally, I must inform you that since the French authorities have no official documentation identifying the French and foreign Jewish population or enterprises, and since a certain number of the interested parties are not in the occupied zone, it is possible that the documents that we have collected are incomplete.

(Illegible signature)
The Chief of Police

Source: CDJC, LXXIXa-10