Expulsion of Jews from Alsace and Moselle

Alsace and Moselle, annexed in fact to the Reich as early as the summer following the defeat, are the first lands of France emptied of their Jewish population. The communities of Strasbourg, Colmar, Metz, and the countless rural towns that had for centuries formed the country's densest Jewish presence are expelled toward the unoccupied zone, with whatever baggage a train allows. Synagogues are burned or converted, cemeteries desecrated, property seized. Those who reach Limousin, Dordogne, or the Pyrénées reconstitute exile communities there that will, two years later, be overtaken by the roundups of the free zone.