Transport 7, Train DA 901-2 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 19/07/1942

The transport of July 19 was composed primarily of Jews who had been arrested in Paris on August 20, 1941. 4,232 Jews of French and other various nationalities were arrested that day by the French police in response to attacks by the French resistance against German occupying forces. They were first brought to the police station and promptly transferred by bus to the Drancy internment camp which had been established as a result of these arrests. Most of these detainees were deported in the first transports from French soil. When the new plans to deport large numbers of Jews from France were executed in the summer of 1942, the remaining victims of the 1941 reprisal arrests were included. In addition to the Jews still interned in Drancy since their arrest in August 1941, 147 more who had become severely ill were rounded-up on July 3 from the Rothschild hospital which had become an annex to the Drancy camp. The re-transfer of these patients to the camp came as a complete surprise. Dr. Robert Worms who worked at the hospital reported that among those removed were several gravely ill with Tuberculosis, some with severe cardiac problems, an amputated war veteran, and many others with severe illnesses. Without exception all the sick were taken, many still in their pajamas. The extremely ill were brought on stretchers and the rest were placed into police cars two by two and transferred to the Drancy camp. Several died during the few weeks they spent in the camp while the others were deported on the July 19 transport. An additional 75 women and 97 men were transferred to Drancy the day before the deportation from Bordeaux in the Gironde Department (District). Finally, an additional 47 women, mostly Polish nationals, were taken from the Tourelles camp and added to the July 19 transport....