Remove plaques honoring French Nazis, Manhattan Borough pres. tells NYC

• Published date: 27 January 2023

The plaques were installed in 2004 on Broadway's Canyon of Heroes, which commemorates individuals and groups who were celebrated with ticker-tape parades

Philippe Pétain, who headed Vichy France and collaborated with the Nazis, and Pierre Laval, who served as prime minister of the Vichy government, were honored in ticker-tape parades in 1931 in New York before they collaborated with the Nazis, but the plaques were only installed in 2004.

Serge Klarsfeld, a French Holocaust expert, revealed to The New York Times in 2010 that Pétain had personally hardened antisemitic measures against Jews in Vichy France, expanding job restrictions and banning Jews from public office.

Laval personally oversaw and encouraged the deportation of Jewish refugees to the Nazis. "No man and nothing can sway me from my determination to rid France of alien Jews and send them back where they came from," said Laval in 1942, according to JTA.

Levine: 'Shocking that these two individuals would be honored this way'

"It's shocking that these two individuals would be honored this way, long after their notorious and disgraceful acts as Nazi collaborators," said Levine, according to the Gothamist. "I reject the idea that this is any kind of gray area. This is a bright line. These guys are on the wrong side of it, and their names need to be removed."

"Removing the plaques is not a whitewashing of history. Rather, it is a refusal to continue to honor two people who made the choice to embody the worst of humanity. France itself has renamed streets that once honored Pétain," said Levine, according to reporter Jacob...