Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) is calling upon New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg to remove a marker commemorating French Vichy Leader Marshal Philippe Pétain. The granite marker is located on Morris and Broadway in the Wall Street area’s “Canyon of Heroes.”

“Pétain was no hero,” explained Assemblyman Hikind. “He willfully collaborated with Nazi Germany, conducting raids to capture Jews and other ‘undesirables’ even in France’s ‘free zone.’”

Pétain was responsible for creating an anti-Semitic outlook and framework that, in 1940, was even harsher than what the Germans had adopted. His policies banned Jews from various professions and activities, which eventually led to the deportation and murder of nearly 100,000 Jews, as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, and left-wing activists. Pétain was convicted of treason in 1945. He was sentenced to death by firing squad but France’s President Charles de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

“Having a monument to Pétain anywhere in the United States is obscene,” said Hikind.

(YWN Headquarters – NYC)