Political Tensions Cloud Tribute to French Holocaust Survivor Who Was Stabbed to Death

The silent decorum of a march to honor an 85-year-old woman who survived Nazi horrors only to be stabbed to death last week in an alleged anti-Semitic attack was shattered Wednesday, with crowds shouting “Nazi! Nazi!” and other insults at France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Mireille Knoll’s death had taken on national importance, reminding France of both historic anti-Semitism and its resurgence in recent years.

Thousands of people — Jews, Muslims and politicians on the left and right — had joined in the evening march from the Place de la Bastille to Knoll’s Paris apartment, where she was killed on Friday and her home set ablaze. The tribute was one of many held throughout the day in cities across France to honor Knoll and denounce racism.

Divisions soon surfaced, however, at the Paris march, which both Le Pen and far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon had insisted on attending despite warnings from France’s leading Jewish group, the CRIF, that they would not be welcome. The group’s president, Francois Kalifat, justified their exclusion by saying the political extremes had anti-Semitics in their ranks.

“They should first clean out their own house,” he said.

Le Pen and Melenchon, political rivals and not in the same spot in the march, both were pushed and insulted with cries of “get out!” and “go home!” Shouts of “Nazi” were hurled at Le Pen, whose father and the founder of her National Front Party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been convicted of anti-Semitism and racism. She has since broken ties with the elder Le Pen.

Le Pen’s body guard and her…