Transport 31 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 11/09/1942

The 11th transport from the unoccupied zone was made up of four trains that departed from different areas in France. Upon arrival at Vierzon near the demarcation line, they were assembled into a single transport bound for Drancy. There were 899 Jews on the train: 718 from Toulouse, among whom 229 had been incarcerated in the Saint Sulpice camp and 284 in the Casseneuil camp, and 144 from the Clermont area. The transport departed from Saint Sulpice on September 2 at 21:41, arrived at Toulouse at 22:38 and left Toulouse at 23:20. It arrived at Caussade on September 3, and at 02:38 it was joined by a transport from the Septfonds camp. At 11:35, the transport left for Cahors, where it was joined by a transport from Casseneuil that departed from the Montsempron-Libos station at 09:00 on the same day. By 20:29, the train was in Chateauroux, where it was joined by a transport from Clermont that had departed from the Montlucon station at 15:54. The combined transport departed Chateauroux at 21:53, crossed the demarcation line between the unoccupied and the occupied zone at Vierzon at 23:03, and left at 23:45, arriving at Drancy on September 4 at 10:23. This was also the case for the 12th transport from the unoccupied zone, which was made up of two trains that departed from different areas in France and were combined at Vierzon into a single transport bound for Drancy. On this transport were 1,041 Jews: 621 who had arrived from Montpellier after assembly at Rivesaltes and 411 from the La Lande camp near Tours in the occupied zone. That transport departed from Rivesaltes on September 4 at 7:00, arrived at Vierzon on September 5 at 01:41, left at 02:40, and arrived at Drancy on the morning of September 5, after joining the transport from La Lande immediately after crossing the demarcation line. At 08:55 on September 11, a train designated Da 901/25 departed from La Bourget–Drancy to Auschwitz with 1,000 Jews on board. Feldwebel Havenstein was tasked with guarding the train. The deportees were given some provisions. On the same day Horst Ahnert - assistant to Heinz Roethke, Head of the Department for Jewish Affairs at the Sipo-SD in France - reported the departure of the train to Eichmann in Berlin....