Transport 9 from Drancy, Camp, France to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 22/07/1942

Those with children were first detained in the Velodrome d’Hiver stadium in Paris before their transfer to the Pithiviers or Beaune-la-Rolande camps. Those without children were transferred to the Drancy camp and would be deported from there in the upcoming transports. The Jews deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 22, 1942 were among these childless Jews. On July 20, Roethke sent directives to André Tulard, Assistant-Director of the Service for Foreigners and Jewish Affairs at the Paris police Prefecture, concerning the next transports to leave from Le Bourget-Drancy train station including the transport scheduled for July 22. He listed items that were to be brought by each deportee including appropriate clothing such as work boots and a work outfit, in addition to bedding and a bowl, a cup and a spoon. This was a measure taken to sustain the illusion that the Jews were on a work assignment and to hide their true destination. Roethke confirmed that before departure the Jews were to be thoroughly searched, and a special wagon was to be set-aside with provisions for 15 days. One deportee per car was to be appointed to maintain order and to clean the car at the end of the journey. An escort consisting of one officer and 30 men was to be provided by the French Gendarmerie and 1 officer and 9 men would be provided by the German Feldgendarmerie (Military Police). On July 22, Roethke confirmed the departure of a train that left the Bourget-Drancy train station on July 22 at 8:55 with a total of 996 Jews. Based on a schedule for the first deportation from Drancy in June 1942, the train presumably took the following route: From Drancy the train travelled through Bobingy, Noisy-le-Sec, Epernay, Châlons-sur-Marne, Revigny, Bar le Duc, Lérouville, and Novéant (Neuburg), the last stop before the German border. The transport chief as far as the border at Novéant-Mossel was Sergeant Weise. The French Gendarmerie and a small contingent of the Feldgendarmerie guarded the train until the border at Noveant. At that point the Ordnungspolizei took over its supervision. In November 1943, The German National Railway Company (Reichsbahn) set up a schedule for the transports from France. We do not have any documentation in connection with transport schedules from the Franco-German to Auschwitz-Birkenau border before that date, but in all likelihood they were very similar. Thus presumably the earlier transports to Auschwitz, including the one that departed from Drancy on July 22, 1942, took the following route once past the Franco–German border: Saarbruecken, Frankfurt-Main, Dresden, Goerlitz, Nysa, and Katowice before reaching Auschwitz....