French authorities arrest two suspects connected with Holocaust-survivor’s murder
French police discovered the charred body of a Holocaust survivor covered with stab wounds after a fire broke out in her Paris apartment on Friday. The local Jewish community fears the murder was motivated by antisemitism, reported Israel Hayom.
Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll, 85, who was found murdered in her Paris apartment last Friday.
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Forensic teams worked over the weekend to gather evidence in an investigation that French government officials are following closely, due to the sensitivity of the incident.
The fire was reportedly lit at five different points in the apartment, pointing to arson.
On Monday, French authorities said that two suspects had been taken into custody, and that they are planning to charge them with premeditated murder of a vulnerable person for antisemitic motives.
They will face charges of “murder related to the victim’s religion, real or imagined,” said a French judicial source, according to AFP.
Sources in the Jewish community said Knoll had previously complained about threats from her Muslim neighbor, saying he had even threatened to burn her.
Prominent figures in the French Jewish community say that while the incident was not widely reported as such in local media, it was undoubtedly an antisemitic attack.
“For the Jews of France, the nightmare continues. While France is still reeling from trauma after the terrorist attack in Trèbes, we discover today the shocking murder last Friday of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor,” French MP Meyer Habib, who represents France’s overseas constituency, including in Israel, said on Sunday.
During a visit to Israel, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the attack was likely antisemitism.
“I had a very moving and difficult moment when I had just concluded my visit to Yad Vashem. I heard about the outrageous murder of Mireille Kanolin—a Holocaust survivor—in Paris,” he said. “We cannot yet say if the motive for the murder was antisemitism. But it is reasonable to assume, it will not be surprising and, therefore, this only strengthens the fact that this struggle has not ended, and that we will need to continue fighting against antisemitism.”
The World Jewish Congress has expressed its shock and horror over the barbaric murder and echoed the calls of its French affiliate CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France) in expecting authorities maintain full transparency over the course of the investigation.
WJC CEO Robert Singer said: “The World Jewish Congress stands together with the French Jewish community in deploring the horrific and barbaric murder of an elderly Holocaust survivor in Paris this week, and in calling on the French authorities to demonstrate full transparency in the ongoing investigation, to ensure that the motivation behind this heinous crime is known as soon as possible, and that is treated with the utmost seriousness it deserves.”
The victim, Mireille K, was living in Paris during the time of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, a Nazi-directed raid and mass arrest of Jews in Paris by the French police, code named Opération Vent printanier (“Operation Spring Breeze”), which took place on 16 and 17 July 1942. Last Friday, her burned body was found with at least 11 stab wounds.
JNS/WJC
