Transport from Bordeaux, Gironde, France to Drancy, Camp, France on 18/07/1942

On July 2, negotiations were held between Carl Oberg, Higher SS and Police Leader in France (HSSPF), and René Bousquet Secretary General of the French police, where the role of French forces was discussed. Bousquet confirmed he was ready to take responsibility for the arrests as long as only foreign Jews were targeted. However, it became impossible to fill the quota for these transports with only foreign Jews, which led to the cancellation of the first deportation from Bordeaux. This cancellation deeply frustrated Eichmann and German officials in France were quick to organize another transport. A new schedule was established on July 11 indicating the next departures from France including a train scheduled to leave on July 18 from Drancy instead of Bordeaux. This transport included 172 Jews who were arrested in the Bordeaux region in mid-July and transferred to Drancy. On July 2, 1942, Maurice Papon, Secretary General of the Prefecture of Gironde, sent out directives to the Regional Prefect for the upcoming arrests that was to comprise 400 Jews. The detainees were to be both male and female between the ages of 16-45. Excluded from the arrests were Jews of Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Finnish, Norwegian, British, American and Mexican nationality in addition to Jews with an Aryan spouse and their children. They were to be sent to the Merignac camp where they would await their transfer to an unknown location. Papon warned the Prefect that the arrests would incite anger amongst the population because they were to be made solely by French Police. The arrests, which were scheduled for July 6, took place ten days later on July 15-16. In Bordeaux 90 Jews were arrested, mostly in their homes. The police commissioner Téchoueyres with the assistance of Pierre Garat, head of the Service des Questions Juives (Service for Jewish Affairs) at the Gironde Prefecture proceeded to arrest the Jews in Gironde. However, approximately 30% of the Jews listed were not apprehended as many, having heard rumours of the arrests had gone into hiding or had crossed over into the unoccupied zone. Those who were caught were brought to the Merignac camp and awaited transfer to Drancy. Madame L.L, as she was known, was among four women who were excluded from the transfer at the last minute. She recalls the transfer of the others who were brought by bus to the Bordeaux train station: “Saturday morning the 18th at 5am we were woken up by the sound of motors. It was the cars of death that came to get the miserable condemned… I saw them board one after the other, dressed, suitcases in hand. They disappeared one after another behind the glass of the sad vehicle.”...