Transport 47 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 11/02/1943

On January 21, 1943, Knochen informed Eichmann, head of the Department of Jewish Affairs (IV B 4) at the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office, Reichssicherheitshauptamt) 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 Jewish 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, after having received Eichmann's approval, Knochen instructed all regional headquarters to arrest Jews who met these criteria for deportation, and to transfer them to Drancy. Consequently, in early February, 96 Jews arrived from Bordeaux; 70 from Chalon-sur-Saone; 68 from Nancy; 22 from Poitiers; and 74 from the Beaune-la-Rolande camp. However, since the French and German governments had not yet reached an agreement regarding the deportation of French citizens, Heinz Roethke, head of the Department for Jewish Affairs of the Sipo-SD in France, ordered the arrest of Jews with foreign citizenship who resided in the Seine Department. On the night of February 10, 1,549 foreign Jews were arrested throughout Paris. Over a thousand French policemen took part in this raid, in which hundreds of elderly Jews were detained, as well as 30 hospital patients, and many children who resided in the following Parisian orphanages Guy de Rothschild, Lamark and Guy Petin. They were all placed in Drancy, and gradually deported to Eastern Poland in the following weeks....