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On July 17, the French police representatives
knowingly and systematically sabotage any possibility that the children might
be saved, including Darquier's proposal that they be lodged in Paris area
children's homes. Darquier is fanatically anti-Jewish, but he shows more
uneasiness at clamoring for the children's deportation than the police
officials, who, seemingly little touched by anti-Semitic ideology, surpass even
Laval in their cowardice.
July 18, 1942. Röthke reports to
Berlin by telex on the numbers of Jews arrested during the raids. Again, he
insists that the children be deported; they represent 4 of the 20 loaded
transports he is committed to provide. To persuade Eichmann, he makes use of an
argument advanced the day before by the French police officials – that is,
the considerable difficulties that would be imposed by long-term care of the
children.
The staff of the prefect of police is alerted by a social
work assistant who is trying to arrange some help for the 8,160 Jews, half of
them children, held in the Vel d'Hiv. (The final count for the roundup is
13,152 arrests; 4,992 adults without children are interned in Drancy, where the
prisoner count reaches 6,626, a thousand more than the camp's "forced"
capacity.) The social work assistant emphasizes the police's lack of
preparation for the arrests: nothing has been anticipated at the
Vélodrome, where the assistant has seen "sick children, overflowing
chamberpots ... [and] only two doctors."
July 19, 1942. The
Paris police organize the transfer of interned Jewish families from the Vel
d'Hiv to the Loiret camps. Two groups, one of 1,073 persons and the other of
1,111 persons, leave Paris through the Gare d'Austerlitz railway terminal under
a strong guard that does not tolerate "any gathering of the curious or of
family members."
Raids are carried out in other French cities as well.
In Nancy, police had counted on seizing 350 Jews, but warnings are leaked by
members of the police and city administration and only 32 arrests result.
Bordeaux has also had roundups and 172 Jews are transferred to Drancy and
deported; 37 are French citizens and the rest are foreign or stateless.
July 20, 1942. Two more groups, of 1,151 and 1,114 internees,
leave the Vélodrome for the Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande camps,
where there have been no preparations for their arrival even though thousands
of new arrivals have been expected since early in the month. Another two groups
of detainees, one numbering 1,143 and the other 1,149, including 542 mothers
and 521 children, follow the next day. The last convoy of Vel d'Hiv internees,
sent to Pithiviers on July 22, carries 877 persons, 428 of them children. Fifty
or so sick prisoners are sent to Drancy.
When recounts are taken at
Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande a few days later, they indicate that the
numbers logged into the two camps are several hundred lower than the numbers
counted after the raids. This may be explained by the transfer of sick
prisoners and some teenagers to Drancy, by escapes, and by the freeing of a
certain number of prisoners for various reasons.
July 22, 1942.
Meeting in Paris, the Catholic cardinals and archbishops of France break their
silence and, over the signature of Cardinal Suhard, the archbishop of Paris,
address a letter of protest to Marshal Pétain against "the massive
arrests of Jews" and the "harsh treatment inflicted on them, notably at the
Vélo […drome]
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FRENCH
CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld
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