Transport 46 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 09/02/1943

On December 19, 1942, Adolf Eichmann, head of the Department of Jewish Affairs (IV B 4) at the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office, Reichsicherheitshauptamt), consulted with Knochen about the possibility of resuming the deportation of the Jews residing in France in the early months of the coming year. On December 31 Knochen replied that the deportations would resume in mid-February or early March 1943, but that the scope of these deportations was unknown at the moment. Three weeks later, on January 21, 1943, Knochen informed Eichmann that 3,811 Jews were currently incarcerated at Drancy. He inquired whether it was possible to schedule one or two deportations to Auschwitz, and also asked what should be done with Jews who were French citizens. On January 25, Eichmann's deputy Rolf Guenther replied that the Reich Ministry of Transportation had allocated freight trains for the transportation of 1,500-2,000 Jews from the Le Bourget-Drancy railway station, and that it was possible to deport French citizens with criminal records and French Jews who had been arrested in 1941-1942 following the series of clashes between the French resistance and German soldiers in France. On January 26, Knochen instructed all regional headquarters to arrest Jews who met these criteria for deportation, and to transfer them to Drancy. Consequently, 170 Jews arrived from Bordeaux on January 28; 74 arrived from Orléans and 22 from Poitiers on January 29; 70 from Dijon and 9 from Angers on February 1. On February 3, 1943, Heinz Roethke, head of the Department for Jewish Affairs at the Gestapo in France, informed Eichmann that two deportation trains would depart on February 9 and 11. On February 8, 1943, Paulina Brytenichsky who was incarcerated at Drancy wrote to her relatives:...