Transport 6 from Pithiviers, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 17/07/1942

This train was composed of 928 Jews, three quarters of whom were foreign Jews who had been arrested in Paris on May 14, 1941. 6,494 foreign Jews were arrested that day by French police in response to German demands to reduce the number of foreign Jews in the occupied zone. They were detained in one of five centers: Caserne Napoléon, Caserne Minimes, 52 Rue Edouard-Pailleron, 33 Rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, and Gymnase Japy. The vast majority were Polish Jews (3,439) 123 Jews were Austrian and 157 Jews held Czech citizenship. They were brought to the Austerlitz train station by bus where, in addition to the French police, German officers of the Feldgendarmerie (German Military Police), were also present to supervise the boarding of the trains. 1,693 were transferred to the Pithiviers camp and 2,000 to the Beaune-la-Rolande camp. While most of these detainees were deported in the 2nd, 4th and 5th transports leaving France in 1942, those who remained were deported on July 17 from Pithiviers. The majority were already in the Pithiviers camp at the time of the deportation. However, an additional 214 men who had been detained in the Beaune-la-Rolande camp were transferred to Pithiviers to join the transport, as well as 150 Jews working on farms in Sologne who were transferred to Pithiviers on July 13. Even with these transfers, however, the total number of Jews available for deportation from the Pithiviers camp was only 600. In order to fill the quota of 1,000 Jews, arrests were made in areas surrounding the Pithiviers camp and restrictions on age or citizenship were not strictly followed. Most of the arrests were made by the local French police forces as agreed at the meeting between Oberg and Bousquet on July 2. Under the orders of the Dijon Kommando, 193 Jews were arrested throughout the Burgundy region in the following Departments (Districts):...