Transport from Saint Sulpice, Camp, France to Drancy, Camp, France on 02/09/1942

A transport departed on September 2 from the Saint-Sulpice camp, in the Tarn Department (District) with 299 Jews. This was a collective transport. On its way to the occupied zone, the train made several stops where it was joined by other transports with Jews who had been arrested in various other Departments: Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, and the region of Clermont-Ferrand. The preparations for the departure of the Jews from the Saint-Sulpice camp were described in a report prepared by Rabbi Georges Apeloig who worked for the Regional Chaplaincy that was responsible for assisting foreign Jews who were detained in the camps. He described his efforts to try and convince the camp authorities to exclude as many Jews as possible from the transport. Unfortunately his efforts were in vain. He reported two attempted suicides. At 15:00 on September 2, the deportees were placed in the wagons, but the train only departed later that evening. In each wagon there were two buckets for hygienic purposes and the deportees were forbidden from getting out. Half an hour before departure, two cars arrived, one with a two and a half year old child whose mother was included in the transport, the other with a Dr. Sadie and his daughter who, according to the report, had come voluntarily to join his wife and her mother. The train departed from Saint-Sulpice on September 2 at 21:41 and made a stopover in Toulouse from 22:38 to 23:10. It arrived at the Caussade train station on September 3 at 02:38 where it was joined by 211 Jews who had been arrested in the Tarn-et-Garonne Department and detained in the Septfonds camp. These Jews had departed from Septfonds on the same day. Rabbi Mark Kahlenberg who also worked for the General Chaplaincy, was present in the camp prior to the deportation and prepared a report describing the events. When he arrived in the camp he found that the men had been separated from the women and children. He described the despair of the men who were frantically trying to find their wives and decide what to do with the children. He reported that there were Jews among the deportees who were meant to be excluded from the transport, such as war veterans, parents of French children, or those with Aryan spouses. The order to begin the deportation came suddenly and unexpectedly. This led to terrible chaos in the camp, with men women and children screaming and crying. As they boarded the trains, a few women were permitted to board third class passenger wagons, all the others were crammed into freight cars....