National Front leader Marine Le Pen. Photo: Emmanuel d’Aubignosc via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Israeli government has condemned French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen for comments absolving France of responsibility for the roundup of thousands of Jews who were deported to the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust.

Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front party, told French media Sunday that France “isn’t responsible for the Vel d’Hiv,” referring to French police’s implementation of a German-ordered roundup of 13,000 Jews in July 1942, ahead of their deportation to Auschwitz.

“I think that, in general, if there are people responsible, it is those who were in power at the time. It is not France,” Le Pen said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that Israel “condemns Marine Le Pen’s statements that France is not responsible for the deportation of the Jews from its territory during the Holocaust. This declaration is contrary to historical truth, as expressed in the statements of successive French presidents who recognized France’s responsibility for the fate of the French Jews who perished in the Holocaust.”