Karl Theo Zeitschel at the German embassy in Paris, who shared the same objectives, and who was in charge of relations with the
Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs
The Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs (french: Commissariat général aux questions juives; C.G.Q.J.) was a special administration established in March 1941 by the collaborationist Vichy government of France in order to introduce anti-Jewis ...
, which was created on 29 March 1941.
Prelude
On 4 October, the Vichy regime promulgated a new
law on the status of Jews
__NOTOC__
The Law of 3 October 1940 on the status of Jews was a law enacted by Vichy France. It provided a legal definition of the expression ''Jewish race'', which was used during the Nazi occupation for the implementation of Vichy's ideologica ...
, it became legal for local authorities to arrest foreign Jews and intern them in special camps. , the German Consul General in Paris wrote in a report to Berlin that: "The French government has undertaken to send all foreign-born Jews to concentration camps in the Unoccupied Zone," and continued that "Jews will be arrested in the Occupied Zone the moment the necessary camps are ready."
[, as quoted in ]
By 1941, the camps at Pithiviers, Beaune-la-Roland,
Compiegne, and
Drancy
Drancy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris.
History
Toponymy
The name Drancy comes from Medieval Lati ...
were in operation, chiefly for the purpose of interning foreign Jews from Paris. On 22 April 1941, Dannecker informed prefect
Jean-Pierre Ingrand
Jean-Pierre or Jean Pierre may refer to:
People
* Karine Jean-Pierre
Karine Jean-Pierre (born August 13, 1974) is a French-American political advisor and has served as the White House press secretary since May 13, 2022. She is the first Black ...
, representative of the Ministry of the Interior in the
Occupied zone, of the transformation of the German camp for French prisoners of war of
Pithiviers
Pithiviers () is a communes of France, commune in the Loiret Departments of France, department, north central France. It is one of the Subprefectures in France, subprefectures of Loiret. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, Eng ...
into an internment camp for Parisian Jews, with the transfer of its management to the office of the Loiret prefect. At the same time, the Germans insisted on the implementation of the law of 4 October 1940 which allowed the
internment of foreign Jews. The
camp at Pithiviers being insufficient for the purpose on its own, the
Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp
Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp was an internment and transit camp for foreign-born Jews (men, women, and children), located in Beaune-la-Rolande in occupied France, it was operational between May 1941 and July 1943, during World War II.
The ...
was added for a maximum total capacity of 5,000 detainees.
Operations
Summons
At the beginning of May 1941, on the basis of the previous year census, 6694 foreign Jews, mostly Polish males between 18 and 60 years old living in the
Paris region
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, received a summons on a green card (the french: billet vert, green card, links=no) hand-delivered by a French policeman for a "status review" (french: examen de situation, unnamed arg2 , links=no, lit=examination of situation"
[, as quoted in ] on the order of Dr.
Werner Best
Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903 – 23 June 1989) was a German jurist, police chief, SS-''Obergruppenführer'', Nazi Party leader, and theoretician from Darmstadt. He was the first chief of Department 1 of the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret ...
. The green cards ordered them to go to one of five centres (Caserne Napoléon, Caserne des Minimes, Rue Edouard-Pailleron, rue de la Grange aux Belles or gymnase Japy) on 14 May 1941, accompanied by a relative or a friend.
[, as quoted in ]
File:Billet-vert-et-liste.jpg, One of the green cards received (on the left) and a list of items that the relative had to bring back.
The card read:
Arrests and internment
Assuming that it was only an administrative formality, 3,700 men obeyed the summon (3 430 Polish, 157 Czech and 123 Stateless jews), they were immediately arrested while the person accompanying them was given a list of items to go fetch for them (blanket and sheet, clothing, cutlery, plate, toiletry bag, food card and enough food for 24 hours). The prisoners were transferred by bus to the
Gare d’Austerlitz and deported the same day by four special trains to two transit and internment camps in the
Loiret
Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434. department: 1,700 in Pithiviers and 2,000 in Beaune-la-Rolande.
Both camps were at first operated by French gendarmes under the administrative supervision of the Loiret prefect, the
French Red Cross
The French Red Cross (french: Croix-Rouge française), or the CRF, is the national Red Cross Society in France founded in 1864 and originally known as the ''Société française de secours aux blessés militaires'' (SSBM). Recognized as a public ...
() brought aid to the families of those interned in both camps.
The inmates at Beaune-la-Rolande stayed in the Château d’Eau barracks, the camp was located in the Southern Zone, 89 kilometers (55 miles) south of Paris. The camp had two sections: one for the internees and the other reserved for the administrative services (police station, infirmary, administration, and kitchen). It was a French-run transit and internment camp and deportation centre for Jews closely associated with the camp at Pithiviers. For more than a year the prisoners were held without knowing what would happen to them. While in Beaune-la-Rolande prisoners performed forced labor both inside and outside the camp, 700 managed to escape. The German authorities took over operations at Beaune-la- Rolande in May 1942.
The camp at Pithiviers consisted of 19 barracks, while under French control German
SS exercised supervisory control and inspection. Just like in Beaune-la-Rolande prisoners performed forced labor both inside and outside the camp. Some prisoners refused to participate in forced labor and organized a revolt in June 1941, a few managed to escape. The camp authorities responded by banning mail and sending some men to prison. The camp’s head doctor, a French doctor from the town, was removed by the SS after they found him to be sympathetic to the prisoners’ plight, under orders from Dannecker, the Germans took over operations at Pithiviers in May 1942.
Deportation and death
On 8 May 1942, 289 Jewish prisoners were transferred to the
Frontstalag of Royallieu, in
Compiègne
Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''.
Administration
Compiègne is the seat of two cantons:
* Compiègne-1 (with 19 c ...
, where they left in
rail cattle cars on 5 June on Convoy 2 for
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. On 25 June and 17 July 1942 the remaining prisoners were sent on Convoy 4 and Convoy 6 from the Pithiviers station, and on 28 June on Convoy 5 from the Beaune-la-Rolande station, to Auschwitz where they were murdered.
Aftermath
The Green ticket roundup was the first mass round-up of Jewish people by the Vichy Regime, it was followed a year later with the deportation and murder of more than 13,000 Jewish people during the
Vel' d'Hiv Roundup
The Vel' d'Hiv' Roundup ( ; from french: Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv', an abbreviation of ) was a mass arrest of foreign Jewish families by French police and gendarmes at the behest of the German authorities, that took place in Paris on 16 and 17 July ...
.
Notes
See also
*
Maurice Papon
Maurice Papon (; 3 September 1910 – 17 February 2007) was a French civil servant who led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bo ...
*
History of the Jews in France
The history of the Jews in France deals with Jews and Jewish communities in France since at least the Early Middle Ages. France was a centre of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages, but persecution increased over time, including multiple expulsio ...
*
Internment camps in France
Numerous internment camps and concentration camps were located in France before, during and after World War II. Beside the camps created during World War I to intern German, Austrian and Ottoman civilian prisoners, the Third Republic (1871–1940 ...
*
The Holocaust in France
The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews and Roma between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution b ...
*
Vichy Holocaust collaboration timeline
Led first by Philippe Pétain, the Vichy regime that replaced the French Third Republic in 1940 chose the path of collaboration with the Nazi occupiers. This policy included the Bousquet- Oberg accords of July 1942 that formalized the collaborati ...
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
Photos_of_the_Green_ticket_roundup_at_the_Memorial_de_la_Shoah..html" ;"title="Memorial de la Shoah">Photos of the Green ticket roundup at the Memorial de la Shoah
.">Memorial de la Shoah">Photos of the Green ticket roundup at the Memorial de la Shoah
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The Holocaust in France
1941 in France
May 1941 events
Antisemitism in France
Jewish French history
Vichy France