Transport, Train VB 1232 from Chalons sur Marne, Marne, France to Drancy, Camp, France on 24/07/1942

The arrests began on July 20. In a report, the Commander of the Gendarmerie in Epernay (in the Marne Department) detailed the events: “Heartbreaking scenes occurred, women not wanting at any price to separate from their children. One of them (who was eventually set free) wanted to throw herself out the window with her two children. These operations, while done as humanely as possible, caused deep emotion in the town of Epernay and it is regrettable that this mission was entrusted to the French Gendarmerie.” According to a Gendarmerie report submitted on July 28, the Jews were assembled in the Frontstalag of Châlons-sur-Marne from the time of their arrest on July 20 until their transfer to the Drancy camp four days later. At 6am on July 24, the detainees were driven to the train station by cars provided by the Service des Ponts et des Chaussés (Department of Civil Engineering). There they were placed in third class passenger cars. At 7:30 the two railway cars were routed to the sorting station and attached to train VB 1232 which left Châlons-sur-Marne at 8:04 and arrived at the Bourget-Drancy train station at 17:00. From the Bourget-Drancy station, transfer to the Drancy camp was undertaken by the STCRP (Société des transports en commun de la région parisienne, Parisian Public Transport Company). By 19:00 the 43 Jews arrested were detained in Drancy. No incidents were reported and the Gendarmerie team in charge of supervising the train was back in Châlons-sur-Marne by 21:57. On July 25, Modest Von Korff sent a telex to Helmut Knochen, Senior Commander of the Sipo-SD in France, with a list of the deportees who had been transferred to Drancy from Châlons-sur-Marne. Von Korff indicated that the operation was implemented without incident and that the French police had been charged with assembling the detainees and interning them in a camp in Châlons-sur-Marne. While the operation was originally intended for the arrest of 95 Jews, only 43 were apprehended. Von Korff insisted that the French police was not to blame, that the Jews of the area had been warned of the arrests in Paris in mid-July, and many had gone into hiding or had fled. In order to avoid this in the future, he suggested that the next arrests be made spontaneously and by the Feldgendarmerie (German military police) rather than by the French police....