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 A total of 7,141 testimonies have content relating to France - these were conducted in various languages (including 1,879 interviews in French) and in several different locations (1,691 in France).

There was a large Jewish community in France before the war, and a number of testimonies describe specific communities in locations around France. The French testimonies describe how, after Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, refugees began arriving in France in ever greater numbers, especially after war broke out.

After the French capitulation to the Germans in June 1940, many fled to the unoccupied zone in the centre and south of the country. Interviews give details of the numerous internment camps established around France, as well as in French territories such as Algeria. Near Paris, the Drancy camp became the main transit point for Jews being deported east to Auschwitz. The actions of the French police and the Milice are discussed.

A large number of testimonies have descriptions of hiding and assuming a false identity. Interviewees talk about how they were helped by, or were involved in, organizations such as the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants) which were able to place children in convents, monasteries, and orphanages in rural locations (such as the Château-de-Chabannes and others), and subsequently to assist people fleeing across the border to Switzerland. Many discuss the role of the UGIF (Union générale Israélites de France), the official body for all Jewish affairs in France established by the Vichy government in 1941, and that of the Éclaireurs Israélites de France (Jewish scouting movement).

Those who fled to the zone under Italian control in the south of France generally report much safer conditions, although this changed drastically once the Germans occupied the area after September 1943.

A major topic of the French testimonies is the Maquis (the resistance movement). Many survivors were actively involved in groups such as the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, French Forces of the Interior, and others.

The testimonies give information on figures such as Léon Blum, the prime minister of France from 1936 to 1937; Varian Fry, the American rescue worker European director of the Emergency Rescue Committee; Robert Gamzon, founder of the Eclaireurs Israélites de France and of the resistance group known as La Sixième (The Sixth); Marshal Philippe Pétain; Klaus Barbie (the Gestapo chief known as the "Butcher of Lyon"); Maurice Papon, civil servant in the Vichy administration in southern France; Paul Touvier, head of the local branch of the Milice in Lyon and later found guilty of "crimes against humanity"; among many others.

A number of testimonies talk about Serge Klarsfeld, survivor and anti-Nazi activist. In addition, the archive contains the testimony of Klarsfeld, as well as that of his wife and son.