Transport from Nexon, Camp, France to Drancy, Camp, France on 29/08/1942

On August 29, a transport departed for Drancy with a total of 446 Jews who had been arrested in the Limoges Region and were detained in the Nexon camp in the Haute-Vienne Department (District). 96 children were among the deportees. Rabbi David Feurwerker, who worked for the general chaplaincy — Rabbis sent to various camps throughout the unoccupied zone to assist the detainees - was present in Nexon on August 28 and 29 and prepared a report detailing the events. He recounts that on the morning of August 29 the Jews were notified of their imminent deportation. The Jews were loaded onto the trains at midnight but the train did not depart until the next morning. Henri Wolf was among those arrested in the Creuse Department (District) who were transferred to the Nexon camp. In his post-war testimony he recalls a visit from a Vichy official in the camp before the deportation. They were assured that they would be treated decently, that they were being sent to work in Poland or in Germany. They were promised that families would not be separated. They were told to relinquish their belongings (jewllery, money, valuables), all of which, they were assured, would be returned to them after the war. A series of meetings took place throughout July and August 1942 to discuss the implementation of the deportations from the unoccupied zone and to devise a program for the upcoming transports. Present at the meetings were representatives of the Vichy government as well as a representative of the SNCF (La Société nationale des chemins de fer français, French National Railway Company). At a meeting held on August 24, the departure of a train from the Nexon camp was confirmed for August 29. The trains were to comprise the following: three cars without sliding doors for approximately 200 people, 27 covered cars for approximately 800 people, four covered cars for the luggage, and 1 car for approximately 72 guards....