Drancy

FRENCH AUTHORITIES OPEN DRANCY CAMP August 20, 1941 French police conduct raids throughout the 11th District of Paris and arrest more than 4,000 Jews, mainly foreign or stateless Jews. French authorities then intern the Jews in the Drancy internment camp, outside Paris. This marks the official opening of the Drancy camp, which is located in a northeastern suburb of Paris. The camp facilities are contained in a U-shaped building that served as a police barracks before the war. The camp has a capacity of 5,000 inmates. Five subcamps of Drancy are located throughout Paris. French police enclose the barracks and courtyard with a barbed-wire fence and provide guards for the camp. Drancy falls under the command of the Gestapo Office of Jewish Affairs in France and German SS Captain Theodor Dannecker. PRISONERS EXECUTED December 15, 1941 In response to a French attack on a German officer, German authorities execute more than 70 people at Mont-Valerien, a fortress outside Paris. German officials include 40 Jews from Drancy in the execution. DEPORTATIONS TO AUSCHWITZ March 27, 1942 More than seven months after the opening of the Drancy camp, French authorities begin deportations of Jews from France. The first transport leaves Drancy and includes more than 1,000 Jews. After a few days, the transport arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. Most of the deportees perish in Auschwitz. By the end of August 1944, French and German authorities in France will deport over 65,000 Jews, mostly refugee Jews without French citizenship, from Drancy to camps in the east (primarily to Auschwitz). ROUNDUP OF JEWS IN PARIS July 16, 1942 From July 16 to 17, French police conduct the largest roundup and arrest of Jews in the Paris area. French authorities arrest over 13,000 Jews, mainly foreign or stateless Jews, and hold the majority of them in the Velodrome d'Hiver sports arena. French police take adults and couples without children--nearly 5,000 people--to Drancy and within a few days deport them from there to Auschwitz. JEWS FROM UNOCCUPIED FRANCE ARRIVE IN DRANCY August 7, 1942 The first transport of Jews from Vichy (unoccupied) France arrives in Drancy. French authorities will deport most of them from Drancy to Auschwitz within days. This transport consists mainly of German Jews whom Nazi officials had expelled from the Baden, Palatinate, and Saar regions of Germany in October 1940. French authorities had interned them in the Gurs internment camp in southwest France. ROUNDUPS OF JEWS CONTINUE IN PARIS September 14, 1942 French police round up and arrest more than 200 foreign-born Jews in Paris and imprison them in Drancy. On September 24, French police round up and arrest nearly 1,500 foreign Jews in Paris and likewise send them to Drancy. Similar raids continue in and around the Paris region over the next few months. SS TAKES CONTROL OF DRANCY July 2, 1943 SS authorities in France take direct control of the Drancy camp. Alois Brunner is appointed camp commandant. Brunner removes the French administration of the camp and also removes French guards from the interior of the camp. French guards remain in positions outside the camp. By this time, German authorities demand the arrest and deportation of all Jews in France, regardless of nationality. Previously, French police arrested primarily foreign-born rather than French-born Jews. JEWS ARRESTED IN NICE September 10, 1943 Alois Brunner and the SS enter Nice, in southern France, to round up and arrest all Jews in Nice and the surrounding regions. Until September 8, 1943, the Nice region had fallen under Italian occupation forces. Under Italian occupation, Jews had found protection since Italian authorities did not actively persecute Jews. After the Italians signed an armistice with Germany, Italian forces pulled out of southeast France and German occupation forces entered the area. Over the next three months, the SS will arrest more than 1,800 foreign-born and French-born Jews in the area and send them to Drancy before deportation to Auschwitz. ESCAPE TUNNEL DISCOVERED IN CAMP November 9, 1943 Nazi guards in Drancy discover an escape tunnel. They arrest 14 prisoners involved in the construction of the tunnel, interrogating and torturing them before deporting them to Auschwitz. However, several of the prisoners will escape from the deportation train and join French resistance groups. SS RAIDS CHILDREN'S HOME April 6, 1944 Gestapo authorities, led by SS First Lieutenant Klaus Barbie, raid a children's home in Izieu, France, where Jewish children had been hidden. Barbie arrests all 44 children and 7 adult staff members. The next day, the Gestapo transports them to Drancy. Within weeks, SS authorities in Drancy deport all the children and staff to Auschwitz. None of them survive. LIBERATION OF DRANCY August 17, 1944 As Allied forces approach the Paris region, SS Commandant Alois Brunner and SS guards in Drancy flee the camp. They take with them 50 prisoners, mainly members of the French resistance, as hostages. Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross arrive the next day and liberate the remaining 1,500 prisoners in Drancy. Of the 75,000 Jews French and German authorities had deported from France, over 65,000 were sent directly from Drancy to Auschwitz.