Transport 52 from Drancy, Camp, France to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 23/03/1943

At 20:00 on March 22, the deportees at the Drancy camp underwent a thorough search. French gendarmes later held them for the night in several stairwells which the Jews were forbidden to leave. The next day, at 05:45 am, a roll call was held, and the men were separated from the women. The detainees were instructed to take with them some provisions and light baggage and to write their names on the card attached to their luggage. On March 23, at 06:30am, 40 French gendarmes arrived in Drancy. They loaded the Jews onto buses. 50 other gendarmes arrived at the Drancy railway station. At approximately 08:00am, Jean Francois, responsible for Jewish Affairs at the Parisian police, arrived and reminded the Germans that the Vichy regime had not consented to the deportation of French citizens, and therefore French forces would not guard the train. However, the French gendarmes remained at the station until the train departed, and, together with the German forces, forced the Jews to board the cars. Instead of French guards, the train was supervised by 30 men from the Orpo (Ordnungspolizei, Order Police). That morning, Samuel Cohen wrote on the back of one of his last photographs: “We are being deported today, leaving first for Metz. After that, we do not know. Kisses.”...