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miracle of precocious maturity born of
misfortune, this adult solicitude shown by small children towards those still
smaller. They carry everything, even toys. I remember two big celluloid dolls
and a teddy bear clasped tightly by its owner.
Dawn arrived, and then
day. The children are piled on the buses in groups of 50, their bundles in the
overhead racks. We can begin to see, and it is even worse….
The
boarding took two and half hours, in the deafening roar of the engines.
Julie Crémieux-Dunand, a director of the Red Cross and
herself an internee at Drancy, in her book Life in Drancy, wrote of the
children: "These small beings, whose mothers or parents had been deported a few
days earlier, implored us to lead them to their Maman. A few of them, a little
older, or more intuitive, already sceptical, told us they knew they would never
see her again. We saw a small boy of eight throw himself on his little sister,
take her in his arms and cry out, 'Don't let them take her away from me, she's
all I have left.... "
August 17, 1942. Leguay is summoned by
Röthke, who has replaced Dannecker as chief of the Gestapo's Jewish
Affairs Department in Paris. Röthke's principal preoccupation is the
planned dispatch of the 13 deportation trains scheduled in September. Leguay
informs him of the date then set for the first large Jewish roundups in the
Vichy Zone: August 26. They calculate that about 15,000 stateless Jews will be
arrested in the raids. Röthke again demands the arrest of Belgian and
Dutch Jews, as well as Jews captured while illegally crossing the line between
the two zones and those imprisoned for other reasons. Leguay asserts that the
transfers of Jews arrested in the August roundups will ensure the September
deportation plan is accomplished. Röthke, responding to Leguay as
Dannecker would, declares: "the September program should be fulfilled and will
be fulfilled."
There is no further discussion of children during this
meeting. However, between August 13 and 17, French police bring 1,054 children
from Pithiviers to Drancy; 779 follow on August 22, and 85 more on August 25.
From Beaune-la-Rolande, 965 arrive on August 19, and 199 more on August 25.
Those in charge of the French police, the Loiret Prefecture
administrators, and the managers of the Loiret camps bear the responsibility
for the pitiful condition of these children after barely one month of
internment. Already suffering brutal mistreatment by French police and
administrators, what awaits them at the end of their long voyage across Europe?
Those who direct and assist their deportation have no illusions, and the
children themselves, guided by instincts of self preservation, often refuse to
board the trains in spite of kind words from those who attempt to reassure
them, promising they are being taken to their mothers.
In his journal
entry for August 17, Georges Kohn, head of the Jewish secretariat at Drancy,
writes: "This morning's departure consisted of 500 children and 500 adults. A
little boy of about five or six approached Captain Vieux and asked permission
to go to the toilet. Vieux gave him three slaps with his riding crop and
answered 'Get out of my sight!' Then he turned to the German at his side: 'You
have to train them!' "
Captain Vieux was then the commander of the
French police contingent stationed at Drancy.
On August 17, the day of
their meeting, neither Röthke nor Leguay have the courage
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FRENCH
CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld
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