Monaco apologizes for Nazi deportations

MONACO – In an unprecedented gesture of repentance, Monaco’s Prince Albert II apologized Thursday for his country’s role in deporting Jews to Nazi camps – seven decades after police rounded up scores of people from the seaside principality, including those who had sought refuge from the Holocaust in what they thought was a safe and neutral land.

“To say this today is to recognize a fact. To say it today, on this day, before you, is to ask forgiveness,” Albert said in a poignant speech recounting actions by Monegasque police during the war.

He spoke facing Monaco’s chief rabbi and other Jewish figures, including Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, renowned Nazi hunters and Holocaust researchers who encouraged Albert’s father, Prince Rainier III, to examine Monaco’s role during World War II.

French police take down Roma camp

LA COURNEUVE, France – Police, working swiftly in the pouring rain, cleared out one of France’s biggest and oldest Roma camps Thursday, dismantling a sprawling network of makeshift shelters that housed hundreds of people.

After the two-hour-long evacuation, some 50 people milled about on the streets of La Courneuve, despite official promises that no one would be left in the streets.

Hugues Besancenot, secretary general of the prefecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris, said around 60 pregnant women, young children and disabled camp residents received vouchers for urgent housing. The others were given a homeless shelter hotline.

About 200 people had been living in the camp, which sprang up in 2009, he said.

Associated Press