Transport 3 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 22/06/1942

Among the Jews deported on June 22, 1942, the majority was arrested in Paris during the first reprisal arrests of 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. 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 on 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 Jewish men 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 men 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 any other public locations. Upon their arrival at the camp the internees were kept waiting for 2-3 hours in the buses. By August 24, a total of 4,230 Jews had been interned in Drancy 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. The Jews arrested remained in Drancy for several months and became the victims of the first deportations from France....