Paris

France

The German occupation of Paris in June of 1940 precipitated an exodus of approximately half of the city’s more than 250,000 Jews to Vichy and other hoped-for safe havens over the following 18 months. Jewish immigrants were the chief targets of the round-ups and deportations in 1941 and 1942. The most infamous of these actions occurred in July 1942, when more than 13,000 Jews—a high proportion of whom were women and children—were arrested and held in deplorable conditions in the Velodrome d’Hiver (or Vel d’Hiv) near the Eiffel tower before being taken to internment camps. The largest of the internment camps was a converted apartment complex which took its name, Drancy, from the northeastern suburb of Paris where it was located. Approximately 67,000 prisoners were held at Drancy, more than 95% of whom were transported to death camps—primarily Auschwitz-Birkenau.