Milltown officials debate Petain street name issue

MILLTOWN — Borough officials continue to grapple with the issue of whether to change the name of Petain Avenue.

No one disputes the facts surrounding the street’s namesake, Philippe Pétain, and his link to the Nazis during World War II. However, Mayor Gloria Bradford and Borough Council members said they have been stymied because of the “hardship” that residents who live on the street would have to endure if the street name is changed.

“This is about fairness,” Bradford said at the March 8 Borough Council meeting.

Councilman Ronald Dixon said officials have to “consider all the people affected by this.”

On Feb. 22, the council unanimously voted against changing the name and taking no action on the issue at this time. At the March 8 meeting, Councilman Robert Owens expressed regret over his vote.

“I apologize for voting without weighing all the facts,” he said.

The issue actually was brought up to Bradford in 2006, when East Brunswick resident Eli Mintz sent a letter on the subject. Nothing was done at the time.

Earlier this year, Evan Gottesman, 15, a freshman at East Brunswick High School, sent a letter to the mayor and the council to “strongly urge” them to change the street name. Gottesman explained in the letter that Pétain, who was chief of state in Vichy, France, during World War II, collaborated with the Nazis during the war and was responsible for the deportation of countless innocent civilians to Nazi death camps. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life in prison.

The street in Milltown was named for Pétain before that war because of his involvement in World War I. Pétain was among several commanders of Allied armies in the earlier war to be chosen for a Milltown street.

“This individual, regardless of any service in the first world war, does not deserve the honor of having a street named for him,” Gottesman wrote. The teenager even started a Facebook page called “Change Pétain Street!” The page now has 328 members.

Judith Mason of Milltown addressed the mayor and council at the March 8 meeting, telling officials that they should not compare the hardship of the people living on a street whose name has been changed to that endured by the “70,000 people who died [because of the actions of] Pétain and also the hardship endured by the U.S. soldiers” during World War II.

“I think the council should understand what hardship means,” she said.

Mason asked the mayor and council to revisit the matter. She suggested that the name be changed to that of a soldier, perhaps chosen at random, from World War II or another war.

“It’s better than to have a street named after a mass murderer,” she said.

Councilman Lawrence Citro said he understood Mason’s point, but that neither the mayor nor any council members meant to compare the hardship associated with a street name change to that of the people who suffered during the Holocaust. He explained that the council was considering the name of the street, the history involved, and the issues that the people who live on the street would endure if the name would be changed.

“Those were the factors we had to consider,” he said. “If the street were to be changed, it would be because the people of the borough of Milltown want the street to be changed, but it’s not up to my personal opinion. It is incumbent [upon] those people of the borough to desire the change, and that is what is missing here.”

Citro said he felt he voted the right way but was not sure what the right result would be.

“To me, it is the issue of the people of Milltown,” he said.

Sal Zaffuto of Milltown suggested the mayor and council look into the option of extending Haig Avenue to include Petain Avenue, which has only two homes fronting on it.

“This way there would be no difficulty of finding the street since people know where Haig Avenue is,” he said.

Bradford read a quote made from Robert Paxton, an expert on Vichy, France, from a New York Times article about the issue.

“I don’t see him as a profoundly wicked man, but a deeply misguided one,” Dr. Paxton said of Pétain in the article. “His priority was to get along with the Germans, and as a result he got dragged in deeper and deeper. He was an accomplice, not an instigator.”

Bradford said this was another angle to look at.

Gottesman, who attended the meeting with Eli Mintz, said he was “once again disappointed” by the mayor and council’s decision.

Mintz’s son, Idan, said the decision did not make sense.

“They keep saying they need to hear from the people of Milltown. The people of Milltown spoke tonight,” he said.

The mayor and council members said they are still awaiting information from the borough attorney regarding the process of changing a street name. They said they expect to have the information at the next council meeting, scheduled for March 22.