Deportation to Auschwitz

11th March 1942

This day in history...First deportation train leaves Paris for Auschwitz Concentration Camp

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Auschwitz entrance by train.

The holocaust derives from words such as 'whole burnt', 'destruction', and 'catastrophe'. But in fact, there are no words that truly describe the evil behind the holocaust. Approximately 6 million Jews were killed during the genocide - that's around 2/3 of the 9 million Jews who were residing in Europe at the time. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party ordered that all Jews in Nazi-occupied countries should register to a religious census in their particular country. They were then sent to ghettos before being transported to concentration camps by a freight train. Amongst the Jews were people suffering from disabilities, homosexuals and the Romani - pretty much anyone who wasn't to Hitler's liking. The concentration camps forced 'inmates' to slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. They were also a place of unpredictability - at any point 'inmates' could be taken to a gas chamber and murdered.This provides background into today's event in 1942 - the first deportation train leaving Paris for Auschwitz. 

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Freight Train transporting Jews.

The Vel' d'Hiv Roundup: In 1942 a mass arrest of Jews took place in France at the orders of the Nazis. 11,000 Jews were were arrested on the same day and were confined at the Winter Stadium and velodrome Vel' d'Hiv in Paris. The conditions were cramped and there were almost no water or food supplies or any sanitary facilities. Within a week the number of Jews being held there sore to 13,000, with around 4,000 of them being children. Amongst the detained were German, Austrian, Polish, Russian and Czech Jews who had all tried to escape to France. Within a week of the arrests, many detainees were sent to nearby camps and separated from their children. This left around 3,000 babies and young children abandoned in the Vel d'Hiv. Before deportation every person had their head shaved and were subjected to a violent full body search. Within 2 months of the arrests, some 1,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz every 2-3 days and by the end of September 1942, almost 38,000 Jews had been deported there. Of these 38,000, only 780 people remained alive. 

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Vel' d'Hiv - detaining Jews in Paris

The Vel' d'Hiv roundup is just one example to the many types of ghettos and detaining centres that were around during the Holocaust period. It is estimated that there were around 49 of these centres in France alone. Nothing since, has come close to the death toll of the holocaust, and lets hope nothing like this genocide happens again.

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Children at Auschwitz

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