Transport from Merignac, Camp, France to Drancy, Camp, France on 26/08/1942

On August 26, 1942, a transport departed from Bordeaux, a port city located in the Gironde Department (district) in the occupied zone. 445 Jews were transferred to the Drancy camp. The Jews deported were mostly those who had already been detained in the Merignac internment camp since their arrest in mid July 1942; others were arrested after that date for trying to cross over to the unoccupied zone. On August 20, Lieutenant Otto Doberschuetz, head of the Sipo-SD in Bordeaux, ordered Pierre Garat, head of the Service for Jewish Affairs (Sérvice des questions juives) and subordinate to the Secretary General of the Gironde Prefecture, Maurice Papon, to prepare a transport scheduled to leave on August 26 for Drancy. All Jews of both sexes, of all ages, and of all nationalities currently detained in the Merignac camp and its annexes in the Quai de Bacalan were to be included. Garat requested an exemption for certain Jews (the elderly, children, and the sick), but Doberschuetz refused. Furthermore, he indicated that the children whose parents had been deported on July 18 would now be included in this transport. Most of these children who had been placed with French families by Jewish organizations after their parents' deportation a month earlier were taken to the Merignac camp ready for the transport. The PQJ (Police aux questions juives, Police for Jewish Affairs) sent taxis to pick up the children from the various homes and bring them to the Merignac camp. Among these children were Nelly (5) and Rachel (2) Stopnicki, whose parents were sent to Drancy on July 18. Nelly and Rachel had been placed with a non-Jewish family at the time of their parents’ arrest. On August 25, they were taken from the home where they had found refuge, and brought to the Merignac camp where they remained for a day before being deported with the promise they would join their parents in Drancy. Their parents, Chil and Esther Stopnicki had already been deported to Auschwitz on July 19, 1942, a day after their arrival in the Drancy camp. On the day of departure, Maurice Papon sent a telex to the Ministry of Interior with confirmation from the Second in Command at the French National Police, Jean Leguay, that mothers who were breastfeeding and their babies were exempt from deportation, totaling approximately 20 people. He indicated that 463 Jews, among them 185 French nationals were to be transferred to the Drancy camp....