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The Holocaust History Project.
The Holocaust History Project.

FRENCH CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST

A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld  

 
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their shock, discovered who had arrived in 1944 regular third-class cars rather than boxcars. After a few weeks, the arrivees were consigned to the same fate as other Jews.

Convoy 79, August 17, 1944 (Drancy)

While Paris was getting ready for the Liberation, Brunner, in his antisemitic rage, did not let up. For the retreat he obtained three cars from an aircraft battery by exchanging some pigs for them. Brunner took with him 51 Jews; many were Resistance fighters and hostages he chose himself because of their reputation or because he hated them particularly. Such was Armand Kohn, head of the Rothschild Hospital, and members of his family. Two of his children – 18-year-old Rose Marie and an older son – escaped. The youngest, Georges-André, suffered a terrible death (pages 886 and 887).

Convoy 80, May 3, and Convoy of July 21-23, 1944 (Drancy)

These convoys were made up of wives and children of prisoners of war, categories that had offered some protection until May 1944. The destination was the Bergen-Belsen camp, in Germany. There were 79 children under 18 among the deportees. The great majority survived, because their conditions, as hostages, were better than at Auschwitz.

Convoy 81, July 30, 1944 (Toulouse)

There had to have been about 160 Jews deported on this convoy, which followed an irregular route to Auschwitz. At least 26 were under 18, 11 boys and 15 girls.

Convoy 82, August 22, 1944 (Clermont-Ferrand)

Little is known about this small convoy that arrived at Auschwitz on September 8, and from which 39 men were selected for work. There were three adolescents, all girls.

Convoy [grouping] 84 (Deportations through Belgium)

The two northernmost departments, the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, were under the authority of the Germany Military Command for Belgium and the North of France. Thus, the Jews arrested here were transferred to Malines, the Belgian equivalent of Drancy, and deported from there to Auschwitz.

Convoy X of September 15, 1942 – the tenth deportation convoy from Belgium – had taken 554 of these Jews of France to Auschwitz, of which more than 160 were under 18. Of them, 122 had been born in France, including 26 in Lille, 34 in Lens, and 8 in Roubaix, towns on or near the Belgian border. More than 60 children from France were deported in the other convoys from Belgium. The total was at least 226 children, 151 boys and 75 girls.

Convoy [grouping] 86 (Children who died in camps in France or who were shot)

At least 85 children are known to have died in internment camps in France. Detailed local research is still needed to refine this information further. To our knowledge, 31 young boys were shot.
    
   

FRENCH CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST

A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld

 
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