Transport 8 from Angers, Maine et Loire, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 20/07/1942

On July 7 Dannecker sent a telex to Ernst informing him that the deportation train DA 901/4 would depart from Angers on July 20. He asked for information regarding the number of Jews that could be expected from the area of Rennes and Tours and informed Ernst that the train could accommodate up to 1,200 Jews. Arrests began on July 15 and the Jews were all gathered in the Great Seminary located on Barra Street in Angers. From there they were transferred to the St-Laud train station and deported directly to Auschwitz. In the Maine-et-Loire Department (District), where Angers was located, the arrests began in the evening. In a report to the Prefect of Maine-et-Loire, the French municipal police in Angers reported that since the previous evening with a break between midnight and five o’clock in the morning, their police forces had assisted the SD in the arrest of the Jews. He reported that 31 men and 21 women from Angers had been assembled in the Seminary. He further informed him that Angers would become an assembly site for those arriving from neighboring Departments....