Transport 1 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 27/03/1942

The Jews included in the first deportation from France were for the most part Jews arrested in Paris in two mass arrests during 1941 in addition to several Jews arrested in Belfort in May 1942. Only Jewish men were apprehended during these first arrests. The first roundup of Parisian Jews occurred on August 20, 1941. This operation was the impetus for the establishment of the Drancy internment camp which would later become notorious as the departure point for the majority of transports leaving France "to the East". On August 20, at dawn, police roadblocks were set up in the XI arrondissement (district) of Paris. The metro stations throughout the area were closed and a group of agents could be found at every corner of the neighbourhood. Arrests began as early as 4am both in the streets and in private homes. The French police, by order of the German authorities, arrested the Jews who appeared on their lists. That first day, a total of 3,022 Jews were detained. They were first brought to the police station and promptly transferred by bus to the Drancy internment camp. The arrests continued for several days and in different neighbourhoods of Paris. On August 21 an additional 609 Jews were arrested including approximately 50 French Jewish lawyers who were taken from their homes and transferred to Drancy. On August 22 buses arrived at the camp with those who had either spent the previous night in the police station or who had been arrested that evening at random in the streets, in coffee shops, restaurants and other public locations. Upon arrival at the camp the internees were kept waiting for 2-3 hours in the buses. These arrests resulted in the imprisonment of 4,230 Jewish men in the Drancy camp; of whom 1,300 were French citizens. They were forbidden to take anything with them and arrived at Drancy with nothing but the clothes on their backs. In a letter from Charles Magny, the Prefect of the Seine district, to the Minister of the Interior on August 28, 1941, Magny confirmed that 4,000 Jews had arrived in the camp on August 20 and were divided up into rooms where they slept on beds with no mattresses. Cold meals would be provided until the necessary material for distributing hot meals became available. Magny inquired whether it would be possible for the Police Prefecture to assure the subsistence of the internees....