Home Up One Level What's New? Q & A Short Essays Holocaust Denial Guest Book Donations Multimedia Links

The Holocaust History Project.
The Holocaust History Project.

FRENCH CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST

A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld  

 
Previous Page Back  Contents  Contents Page 115 Home Page Home Page  Forward Next Page 
     
now preserved the images of 2,502 children. This volume contains all or very nearly all of them. We intend to continue publishing the collection as it grows. The publication of this edition has also enabled us to correct and fill in many gaps in the convoy lists. We have made hundreds of changes and additions, correcting the spelling of names and filling in missing birth dates and addresses.

The Children Who Survived


I estimate that about 300 children under 18 survived out of the 11,400 children deported. This is an aggregate estimate, taking note of a relatively large number of surviving adolescents from the last transports in1944. Survivors in the 12 to 15 age group probably did not number 50. None or almost none of the children under the age of 12 survived deportation, except those sent to Bergen-Belsen in 1944; they were not killed on arrival at the camp because the Germans intended to use their parents as hostages.

Annotated List of Documentary Sources

1. The original deportation lists
A number of archives hold some or most of the original lists, or copies of them (see above). We used lists held by: (1) the CDJC, Paris; (2) the French Ministry of Veterans and War Victims (referred to here as the Veterans Ministry), Paris; (3) the Red Cross International Tracing Service, Arolsen, Germany; (4) the Belgian Ministry of Health and Family, Brussels; (5) Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem; and (6) YIVO Institute, New York.

2. Data processing list of deportees created by the Ministry of Veterans and War Victims
The lists created by the Veterans Ministry after the war were photocopied in 1977 and turned over by us to the CDJC.

3. Registers of the camps of Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers
Camp registers were obtained on microfilm in 1992 from the archives of the Loiret Department by special decision of the Director of the National Archives.

4. Drancy camp registers (lists of daily entries and exits) for October 1, 1942, through June 30, 1943
These lists were found in the archives of the YIVO Institute in New York; I learned of them in 1975, and copied them there.

5. Drancy camp registers for July 1, 1943, through August 11, 1944
The Drancy registers were preserved at the Veterans Ministry. In 1993, I was able to have them photocopied after their seizure at our request by the investigating of judge in the case filed against Aloïs Brunner, Drancy commandant and head of a special commando sent by Adolf Eichmann to speed the arrest of Jews. Our request was based on the need of the co-plaintiffs in the case to know precisely who Brunner's victims were.

6. Archival holdings on the wartime surveillance of Jews

 
   
   

FRENCH CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST

A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld

 
Previous Page  Back Page 115 Forward  Next Page

   

Last modified: March 9, 2008
Technical/administrative contact: webmaster@holocaust-history.org