The Vélodrome d'Hiver Roundup (July 16–17, 1942)

On July 16 and 17, 1942, in Paris and its suburbs, French police arrested more than thirteen thousand Jews—including several thousand children—on orders from the occupation authorities and with the active assistance of the Vichy administration. Single persons and childless couples were taken to Drancy; families were crammed for several days in the Vélodrome d'Hiver without water or care, before being transferred to camps in the Loiret region and then deported to Auschwitz. Almost none of the children seized in the roundup returned. Having become the symbol of the French state's participation in persecution, the Vélodrome d'Hiver Roundup was the subject of official recognition of this responsibility by the President of the Republic in 1995. This theme traces the course of the roundup, the fate of its victims, and its long journey through national memory.

Sources & resources

• La Rafle du Vél d'Hiv. Paris, juillet 1942 — Laurent Joly, 2022
• La Rafle du Vél d'Hiv — Maurice Rajsfus, 2002
• Mémoire Juive & Éducation — Dominique Natanson ↗