On the morning of August 26th 1942 in the occupied zone, convoy 24 left the station of Bourget Drancy. 1,002 people were deported to Auschwitz. At the same time in the whole free zone took place the massive roundup prepared by the secretary general of the police Rene Bousquet, in collaboration with the head of the national police and the regional and departmental prefectures.
The organization of the roundups and deportations:
From the 28th July 1942 in Paris under the supervision of Rotke, the new head of the Jewish affairs department of the Gestapo, there was an intensification of Jewish deportation convoys in both the occupied zone and the free zone. The primary targets were stateless Jews, and the Vichy government was committed to deport a preliminary contingent of 3 to 4,000 Jews before August 2nd. For Leguay and Bousquet the goal was to fill the 15 trains intended for the month of August as well as the 13 planned for September by Rotke. The August convoys were filled essentially with Jews who were already gathered in various camps in the south of France. For the convoys of August 28th and 31st and in anticipation of the September convoys, the police services planned the arrest 12,000 stateless Jews in the free zone. On July 29th, Bousquet received the order to deliver all the Dutch and Belgian Jews and to promulgate a law on the revocation of French nationality for Jews naturalised after 1919. In a summary by Hagen for Rotke of this interview between the German authorities and Bousquet, an extract on the Jewish question is particularly revelatory of the extent of the collaboration between the Vichy regime and the occupiers from an ideological point of view. “Bousquet remarked that the Marshal and President Laval were from now fundamentally in agreement with this solution for the Jewish question.” At this time the German authorities estimated the number of Jews who had been deported from France at the end of August to be 26,000. Darquier de Pellepoix, who had replaced Xavier Vallat since May 1942 at the head of the CGQJ, emphasized the importance of the regularity of the convoys and reminded of the target figures agreed by the French and Germans, namely 32,000 Jews. Although some exemptions had been arranged, Leguay did not hesitate to deport Jewish children from the Paris roundup to Drancy in 4 convoys. At the same time, Bousquet’s police continued to organize the great roundup of the free zone. On August 18th the prefects were informed of the date of the roundup, for which they were held responsible to keep rigorously secret. Bousquet took advantage of this to revoke five of the eleven exemptions enumerated on August 5th in an initial note, probably out of fear of an insufficient number of arrests. From then on the sole exemptions were elderly people over 60, individuals unfit for transportation, pregnant women, the parents of children less than 2 years old, and individuals with a French spouse. When in the middle of the day it seemed that the number of arrests was far below what had been predicted and did not exceed 3,500 people, Bousquet’s department reminded prefects that children aged 2 to 16 whose parents were fit to be delivered had to be deported.
The transportation of the deportees from the roundup points to the internment camps and then to the stations, took place with lorries and buses hired from private businesses. For example in Nice, the Darnand company provided the police with the necessary means for the transport of the Jews during the roundup of August 26th, and later Joseph Darnand became the chief of the Vichy Militia.
Assigned in forced residence in Salleles d’Aude, Herzel and Rosa Spira were rounded up with their children, Felix and Toni on August 26th 1942 and transferred to Rivesaltes where the family stayed for a few days. Herzel at the time of the round up was on leave of absence from his group of foreign workers in La Peyrade and volonteered to remain with his family.
On September 4th 1942, Rosa, Toni, Felix and Herzel Spira were deported to Drancy; on the 11th they were part of convoy no. 31 for Auschwitz.
On August 28th, 6,584 arrests had been made. This number was supposed to have been increased by the continuation of the roundups, but Bousquet signaled to the German authorities that numerous Jews had fled to Switzerland as a result of the measures being taken against them. Bousquet spoke on the same day with the chief of the Swiss police and justified the roundups as follows: “These people have not shown gratitude and it’s the reason why we have to liberate our country from them, to get through our current crisis.”
The deportation of children:
Children were also deported and on July 31st the 13th French convoy left Pithiviers. In order to fill it, it had been necessary to take mothers for the first time. 147 women left with their children (139) aged from 15 to 20 years old. These women had their children of younger than 15 years old snatched from their arms by the French constabulary. These children were left in a state of abandonment until their deportation. On the same day at the Council of ministers, Laval announced the state of progress of the Bosquet-Oberg negotiations and stated that “the problem of children (from 2 to 15 years old) is solved: they will be taken to their families from August 8th to 12th.” Between August 13th and 17th 3,000 children, starving and uncared for were taken by the French police at Pithiviers and at Beaune-la-Rolande to Drancy. Between August 14th and 26th, 2,265 children from 2 to 16 years old were taken to Auschwitz for an inescapable death.
This synthesis is based on the work of Serge Klarsfeld in is work La Shoah en France Volume 1: Vichy-Auschwitz "The Final solution and the Jewish question in France", chapter five: the August 1942 roundups in the free zones and the transfers to the occupied zone.
Bousquet, René: Secretary general of the Vichy regime police from May 1942 to December 1943.
Oberg, Karl: Supreme chief of the SS police in Paris from May 1942.
Hagen, Herbert: Secretary general of the SS police in Paris.
Röthke, Heinz: chief of the "Jewish department" of the SS in July 1942 with the rank of "Obersturmführer” (lieutenant). He was director of Drancy camp from July 16th 1942 to July 2nd 1943.
CGQJ: the General Commissionership for Jewish Questions is an administrative organisation of the Vichy regime responsible for the policy of the French state with respect to Jews in France.
