Transport 48 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 13/02/1943

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 regarding 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 currently unknown. After the French Resistance assassinated a German officer at a railway station in Rouen in the West of France, the Prefect of the area ordered mass arrests of Jews in the Seine-Maritime Department (District) on January 15-16, 1943. The French police arrested 223 Jews during the night some of whom were elderly, women and children. They had to take personal luggage and their ration cards; the police confiscated all valuables in their possession. The detainees were sent to an assembly site on Poisson Street, where they remained during the night. On January 18, they were transported to Drancy in two third-class passenger cars attached to a train that departed at 05:45 in the morning. This was the first time that numerous Jewish families with French citizenship were arrested at the behest of the Germans. 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 French civilians and the German army....