Transport 39 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 30/09/1942

Beginning on September 4, 1942, the Rivesaltes camp in the south of France fulfilled a function similar to that of Drancy in the occupied zone: all the Jews who were arrested in the south or who were incarcerated in other camps were sent to Rivesaltes in preparation for their deportation to Drancy and eventually to Auschwitz. On September 8, 1942, Jean Leguay, second in Command at the French National Police in the occupied zone, met with Heinz Röthke, Dannecker’s successor as head of the Jewish Affairs Department at the French Sipo-SD , and confirmed that 7,000 arrests had been made in the “free zone.” Thus, he added, the French authorities could guarantee enough Jews to meet the transport quotas only until September 14; afterwards, the number of Jews available for deportation would not suffice. On September 25, Helmut Knochen, head of the Sipo-SD in France, informed Berlin that after the arrest of Jews with foreign nationalities from both the occupied and the unoccupied zone, it would no longer be possible to deport large numbers of Jews. The train designated Da 901/34 departed from Le Bourget–Drancy destined for Auschwitz on September 30 at 8:55. Previous transports from Le Bourget–Drancy had carried about 1,000 Jews each, but on this transport there were only 210 deportees. In a telegram to Eichmann on the same day, Röthke explained that the transport was sent out despite the relatively small number of deportees for political reasons and in order to demonstrate the Sipo-SD’s superiority over the French authorities, who attempted to prevent its departure in every possible way....