Story highlights Marine Le Pen says France was not responsible for the wartime round-up of Jews who were later sent to Nazi death camps

Her comments have been criticized by presidential rival Emmanuel Macron and Jewish groups

The first round of voting in the presidential election takes place on April 23, with run-off likely on May 7

Paris (CNN) Marine Le Pen's attempts to convince voters that she has modernized the views of her far-right Front National party have come into question after she questioned the French state's role in the Holocaust.

Le Pen suggested France was not responsible for the wartime round-up of Jews who were sent to Nazi death camps. With just 13 days until the first round of voting in France's presidential election, her remarks have been met with widespread condemnation.

Her stance is at odds with former president Jacques Chirac and current premier Francois Hollande, who have both apologized for the role played by French police in the rounding up of 13,000 Jews at the Vel d'Hiv cycling track in Paris , ordered by the Nazis in July 1942.

"I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv," Le Pen told French broadcaster LCI on Sunday, arguing that the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime "was not France."

"I think that generally speaking if there are people responsible, it's those who were in power at the time. It's not France," she added.