French hamlet 'Death to Jews' won't change name
Deputy mayor says in response to Simon Wiesenthal Center's demand that small village be renamed, 'We should respect old names. No one has anything against the Jews, of course.'
The group's director of international affairs, Shimon Samuels, wrote to Bernard Cazeneuve saying he was "shocked to discover the existence of a village in France officially called "Death to Jews" (La-mort-aux-Juifs).
"It is extremely shocking that this name has slipped under the radar in the 70 years that have passed since France was liberated from Nazism and the (pro-Nazi) Vichy regime," he wrote.
However, the deputy mayor of the village of Courtemaux – population 289 – which has jurisdiction over the hamlet located around 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Paris, dismissed the concerns.
"It's ridiculous. This name has always existed," Marie-Elizabeth Secretand told AFP.
"No one has anything against the Jews, of course. It doesn't surprise me that this is coming up again," she added.
Changing the name would require a decision by the municipal council, which Secretand deemed unlikely.
"Why change a name that goes back to the Middle Ages or even further? We should respect these old names."
"A previous municipal council, at least 20 years ago, already refused to change the name of this hamlet, which consists of a farm and two houses," she explained.
In 1992, an anti-racism organization lobbied the interior minister and the authorities at the time in vain to get the name changed.
In May, residents of a town in Spain with a similarly unfortunate name, Castrillo Matajudios ("Castrillo Kill Jews"), did vote to change the name.
They voted 29-19 in favor of scrapping the northern Spanish town's name, in existence since at least 1623, opting for the less offensive, older name, Mota de Judios, or "Hill of the Jews".
