L’enjeu de la guerre : les Juifs – “The Jews – The Cause of the War” – An antisemitic publication released in France at the outbreak of World War II, accusing the Jews of instigating the war for their own interests. By the antisemitic propagandist Louis-Charles Lecoc. Published by Fernand Sorlot, Paris [1940] – First edition. French.
“When you meet a Jew, poor or rich, remember that he represents not only his pitiful self, but also a religion, a race, an international entity—ultimately, seventeen million beings united over centuries to conquer the world.”
A particularly violent antisemitic tract written as part of the propaganda effort under the Vichy regime and German occupation. The book portrays the Jews as the principal cause of the war and seeks to justify their persecution, inciting hatred against them in the most explicit manner—without pretense, excuse, or rhetorical disguise. The author, Louis-Charles Lecoc, was a French lawyer and political activist who headed the Comité d’action antibolchévique (Committee for Anti-Bolshevik Action), an organization that collaborated with Nazi Germany. The committee disseminated antisemitic and anti-communist propaganda and was connected with institutions such as the Institut d’étude des questions juives (Institute for the Study of Jewish Questions), which operated in Paris under German supervision. Throughout the book, Jews are presented as the “internal enemy” and the primary force behind the war, accused of spreading Bolshevism and undermining France’s social and national order. Lecoc combines traditional antisemitic claims with modern antisemitic tropes, alleging Jewish control over all aspects of French life, and portraying the Jewish people as orchestrators of a global conspiracy aimed at destroying France and European civilization from within. The purpose of the book was to legitimize the policies of persecution and repression against Jews in France and to bolster public support for collaboration with Nazi Germany. It served as a propaganda tool for spreading antisemitic ideology and was part of a broader Vichy regime campaign to incite hatred against Jews and depict them as enemies of the nation.
The book is filled throughout with virulent antisemitic slurs characterizing and warning against the so-called “Jewish nature.” It includes statements such as: “When they sweat from fear, they flee”, and descriptions of the “cowardly and ambitious Jew, ” or claims like “The Jew wants the last French soldier to spill his last drop of blood.” The Jew is portrayed as “eerily calm and self-assured, horrifying, malevolent, ” and is accused of betrayal in times of distress: “This man could live largely off our goods, our wealth, succeed in our offices, taste the intoxication of power at our expense—and still, when all is dark, feel detached from us, liberated… Jews are like rats fleeing a sinking vessel; now they are fugitives, strangers escaping in every direction.”
Other examples include: “Make no mistake—what drives us is not hatred, but fear, ” and “Gifted mostly with mediocre intelligence, but exceptionally skilled at transferring money from others’ pockets into their own.” The text asserts: “The Jewish homeland exists wherever a Jew is. It ignores borders and customs. It exists across all peoples, despite them, and within each nation—elusive and sovereign…”
The book opens with a venomous preface by Paul Chack, who praises the author as a passionate orator and writes:
“This book must be read aloud to the public. It is simple and convincing. The entire Jewish question is handled objectively, without exaggeration, with a clarity that should penetrate even the most stubborn skulls the following truth: ‘The Jews are not people like us. The interests of the Jewish community are entirely opposed to those of the French community…”. The cover features a yellow background with a stereotypical caricature of a Jew with a long nose, standing behind a naïve-looking Frenchman, separated by a question mark. The title LES JUIFS is written in a font mimicking Hebrew script.
92 [2] pages. Printed on low-grade paper due to wartime shortages. Very good to good condition.
