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March 24, 1942. A regulation issued by the
German military administration in France gives a new definition of a Jew:
1. Any person is considered a Jew who has
at least three grandparents of pure Jewish race. A Grandparent is considered to
be legally of pure Jewish race if the person has belonged to the Jewish
religion. Equally considered to be Jewish is any person descended from two
grandparents of pure Jewish race who:
a) On June 25, 1940 belonged to the
Jewish religion or who belonged to it at a later date; or who
b) On June
25, 1940 was married to a Jewish spouse or who married a Jewish spouse at a
later date.
In case of doubt, any person is
considered a Jew if they belong or have belonged to the Jewish religion.
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March 27, 1942. The first French
deportation train to Auschwitz leaves the suburban Paris station of Le Bourget
Drancy at 5 P.M with 565 Jews, half of the planned transport. The rest of the
deportees board the train further north, at Compiègne, and it leaves
later the same day with its full cargo of 1,112 men plus a separate group of 34
Yugoslav Jews. The convoy is escorted to the German border by French gendarmes
under direction of an SS officer, and from there by German military police.
This first deportation train is the only one to be made up of standard
third-class railway cars. It is accompanied to Auschwitz by Dannecker. On
arrival at the camp, the deportees are given Auschwitz tattoos numbered 27533
to 28644. (One prisoner, Georges Rueff, manages to jump from the train and
escape.) Of the prisoners on the train, 1,008 are dead by the end of August
1942. Twenty-two of the deportees on this first French transport survived the
war and returned to France in 1945.
May 29, 1942. German
authorities in France publish regulations adopted the previous day requiring
Jews in the Occupied Zone to wear a yellow star. The text of the ordinance:
I
Distinctive Insignia for
Jews
1. It is forbidden for Jews of the age of
six and older to appear in public without wearing the yellow star.
2. The
Jewish star is a star with six points having the dimensions of the palm of a
hand and black borders. It is of yellow cloth and displays, in black letters,
the word "Jew." It should be worn very visibly on the left side of the chest,
firmly sewn to the garment.
II
Penalties
Infractions of the present ordinance
will be punished with imprisonment and fines or one of these penalties. Police
measures, such as imprisonment in a camp for Jews, may be added to or
substituted for these penalties.
III
Entry in Force
The present ordinance will be effective
June 7, 1942.
The wearing of the yellow star
was never imposed on Jews in the Unoccupied Zone even after the Germans
occupied all of France later in 1942.
June 7-8, 1942. Fearing
demonstrations of public sympathy with Jews on the first day
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FRENCH
CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld
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