A veteran of World War I, Darquier was actively involved in radical antisemitic movements in France during the 1930s. He served as a Paris City Councilman from 1935 and 1940. Darquier de Pellepoix rose to prominence during the Vichy years as the second director of the Commissariat Général aux Questions juives (CGQJ) in May 1942, succeeding Xavier Vallat. He focused the activities of the CGQJ on the systematic expropriation through Aryanization of Jewish property in France and participated in the persecution and deportation of Jews living in France to extermination centers in the East. Darquier de Pellepoix was deeply involved in the 16-17 July 1942 roundups of Jews in the Paris region (rafle du Vél d’Hiv) and their temporary confinement at the Vélodrome d'Hiver. He was replaced in February 1944 by Charles Paty de Clam.

Darquier de Pellepoix facilitated the confiscation of the Schloss Collection by appointing Jean-François Lefranc as the administrator of the collection in February 1943. Darquier de Pellepoix, who held legal authority over the fate of the Schloss Collection, closely monitored the confiscation and was kept informed of every detail leading up to the seizure of the collection in April 1943 and its transfer to Paris. On 25 May 1943, German consul Werner Gerlach recognized Darquier de Pellepoix’s legal authority on behalf of the German Embassy in Paris.

In 1947 the French High Court of Justice sentenced Darquier to death in absentia after his flight into exile to Spain, under the protection of Francisco Franco.

Sources:

Callil, Carmen. A History of Family and Fatherland. New York: Random House, 2014.

Klarsfeld, Serge. Vichy-Auschwitz: Le rôle de Vichy dans la Solution Finale de la question Juive en France-1942. Paris: Fayard, 1983.

Paxton, Robert O. Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.