Fire of the Bazar de la Charité
While the fire of the Bazar de la Charité on the 4th of May 1897 is remembered in a historical TV series, a deep dive into our digital library allows you to rediscover the reactions of the press after this tragedy. Particularly three issues from the Archives Israélites de France followed this dramatic event:
- Issue of May 6th, 1897 (a last-minute brief article recalling the tragedy and mentioning two Israelite victims.)
- Issue of May 13th, 1897 (most of the issue is devoted to the event)
- Issue of May 20th, 1897 (article entitled “Haine et charité”– ‘Hatred and Charity’)
Later, following the fire at the Théâtre Français, the Archives Israélites de France, in their issue of March 15th, 1900, naturally drew a parallel between the two disasters and presented Mr. Drumont’s reactions to these catastrophes:
In the Journal L’Univers Israélite, which is not fully digitalized yet, you can find four interesting articles about this event:
- A propos de la castastrophe du Bazar de la Charité (About the disaster at the Bazar de la Charité)
- Service funèbre en l’honneur des victimes du Bazar de la Charité (Funeral service in honor to the victims of the Bazar de la Charité)
- Le discours du Grand Rabin de France (The speech of the Chief Rabbi of France)
- Le geste des preux du Bazar de la Charité (The gesture of the valiant of the Bazar de la Charité)
For more information on the consequences of the this fire, you can also come and consult on site our documents, particularly Nationalisme, antisémitisme et fascisme en France by Michel Winock, who devotes one chapter on this subject (entitled “Un avant-goût de l’apocalypse : l’incendie du bazar de la charité” – ‘A foretaste of the apocalypse: the fire of the Bazar de la Charité’), as well as the autobiography of Baron Hirsch, Le Moïse des Amériques by Dominique Frischer, which informs us that a donation from the baroness of Hirsch following this drama led to the review on L’Autorité to publish an article entitled “Trop, trop de juifs” – ‘Far too many Jews’.
Whereas in the end, our documents seem to show that there were only few Jewish victims, the anti-semitic responses to this drama were very present, from Drumont to De Cassagnac.