New York Will Remove Broadway Plaque Honoring Nazi Collaborator Marshal Petain
New York City plans to remove a plaque along Broadway honoring Marshal Philippe Pétain, an early leader of Vichy France, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.
The plaque commemorates a ticker-tape parade held for Pétain in the 1930s, when he was known as a hero of the First World War. In 1940, Petain became leader of the Vichy government, controlling the portions of France not under direct Nazi occupation while collaborating with the Nazi regime and undertaking Nazi-style persecutions of Jews.
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind called for the plaque’s removal in the spring.
De Blasio said that the removal of the Petain plaque was part of a “review of all symbols of hate on city property” undertaken after last week’s neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Petain plaque is one of 200 similar plaques embedded along lower Broadway, each commemorating a ticker-tape parade. Other honorees include Pierre Laval, Petain’s successor as leader of Vichy France and an even more willing collaborator with the Nazis, and Dino Grandi, an Italian Fascist who served in the Mussolini government.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO