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November 4,
Aty
1943.
J
General Letter N e 541
To:
AUG
NEW
YORK
i?rom:
AJDC
LISBON
Re: Concentration Camps
in France.
We are enclosing herein a report regarding the camps of
Drancy and Coiupiegne in France. These reports are based
upon a personal experience of one of the internees who
effected ills liberation some time ago.
We understand that the situation in Drancy at least has
become much vrorse during the past several months, Nevertheless we thought you alight want to see the report for
the information it contains.
Ends.
llK/ :'iL
Translation from the French.
On August 20th and 21st, 1941 5000 Jews were rounded up in Paris. They were
arrested mostly in the 11th, 18th a.nd 10th arrondisseraents. I was arrested on
August 21st and Drought to Camp Drancy together with my coreligionists. I
remained in this camp until December 12, 1941 when I was transferred to Camp
Compiegne. I was liberated on February 20, 1942. I shall try to give a
description of the life we led in these two camps:
DEAilCY
Camp Drancy bears the name of the town where it is situated. It consists of a
group of buildings in the shape of a horse shoe. Each building has four floors
and there are 22 staircases in all. I do not know why their construction was
not completed. The rooms are ba.re, the floors and ceilings unfinished; there
are big windows with crannies. I understand that these buildings were supposed
to be utilized as barracks for the gardes mobiles (state police) but that,
because of their unfavorable location, the humidity, the faulty construction,
they were never completed.
Before our arrival this camp had been used as an internment camp for English
civilians vho had been arrested after the arrival of the German occupation troops.
Later on, the English civilians were transferred to Camp Saint Denis, For a
certain time the camp remained empty and only on August 19, 1941, on the eve of
the roundups was it apparently decid.ed to assign this camp to the Jews.
I was brought to Drancy with other coreligionists. At that time there was no
camp organization whatever. For a whole day we remained in the courtyard, in a
heavy rain, without food. We were guarded by French gendarmes. In the evening
were were led into the rooms v/hich were filthy. In some of them there were some
wooden beds. Those who arrived first took possession of the beds and the great
majority of the internees had to sleep on the concrete floor. There was not
enough space and they had to lie practically one on top of the other. The moral
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effect of this first night in the camp remained engraved in our memory. We
were 50/50 in our dormitory. There were five beds so that the majority had to
lie on the dirty floor. Some had been arrested on the street and lacked everything. 1'hey had not been permitted to return to their homes to take their
linen, blankets, toi.let articles. They were wearing their light city clothes.
We were not allowed to communicate with the outside world except through official
channels i.e. we could send two post cards monthly. We could not receive any
food or clothing parcels. Only in November did we obtain permission to receive
one food and one clothing parcel per week. There was a roll call twice a day,
morning and night.
TWO things made us suffer most in Cgiup Drancy, which was called "Drancy la Creve"
(Drancy the Killer) by the internees: The food and the attitude of the guards.
FOOD. The food furnished by the camp was insufficient and. of bad quality. A
broth v/hich was merely warm water was served for breakfast. For lunch they gave
us some liquid which they called soup. It consisted of a few pieces of carrots
or cabbage v/hich swam in a sea of hot water. In addition to this so-called soup
we were given, only for lunch, half a spoonful of jam and some few raisins. For
dinner there was soup again, and it was even more watery than that we were
served for lunch. Fats were inexistent so that we did not have any difficulties
in washing cur mess kits. We were entitled to 200 gr (less than l/2 Lbs) of
breed per day. After a fortnight of this diet - it was to last until November
when we finally obtained permission to receive a 3 Kg (about ? Lbs) parcel per
*/eek - we began to lose our strength. We became weaker every day, the sanitary
conditions of the camp were critical. We were all very hungry. Before my internment I had heard people speak of hunger, but only in Drancy did I come to
realize what it actually meant. We quarElled with each other over the last dipper
of that awful soup. Many internees, at the edge of starvation, picked up the
garbage and ate the remains of vegetables and other rotten stuff.
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At a certain moment the lack of fats caused an almost general constipation,
and it was a pitiful spectacle to see the people in the toilets writhing and
crying from pain when they tried to evacuate their intestins. At another
moment an epidemic of diarrhoea broke out in the camp. It was caused by a
cabbage soup v/hich v/as served to us on an unforgettable Thursday. It was
terrible. According to the statistics of some physicians, internees like
ourselves, more than 80$ of the internees were affected. The diarrhoea was so
violent that the people did not have the time to rea.ch the toilets. During
this epidemic there was an execrable smell in the rooms. The physicians tried
to help but could not do much because of the la.ck of medicines. The food v/as
still the same and did not help to ckeck the illness. It v/as a terrible
fortnight for the entire camp. After repeated interventions by Dr. Tisnet, the
official physician of the Prefecture de Police, anti-diarrhoea vaccins were
brought to the canjp and the epidemic was finally checked. W e were all in a
state of complete exhaustion and too v/eak to stand upright. Every day, wkEnxihe
during the roll call or during our daily walk,
5 to 6 internees collapsed and
had to be taken to the sickward. In the beginning of November the health
situation of the camp v/as disastrous.
At the request of the physicians, which was s\ipported by Dr. Tisnet, a general
medical examination was authorized. It was found that 1.200 persons, out of
about 5.000 had skin diseases and suffered from acute anemia. They were liberated around the end of November. They were the only people ever to be released
for reasons of health. The competent authorities decreed that from now on
there would be no liberations for reasons of illness. Those gravely ill were
transferred to the Rothschild Hospital, where they continued to be treated
like internees and were guarded by police inspectors.
The month of November was to be of the utmost importance to us. The starvation
came to an end because food parcels were sent to us by our families. The
Hygienic conditions, however, had not improved. We had noi
soap, we were still
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sleeping on the concrete floors. ,J-he internees who had been arrested on the
streets had still no extra shirts and. underv/ear. Vermin^, lice, bugs etc.
haunted us. She showers did not work. Also in November we finally received
beds and mattresses and gradually some organization was achieved in the camp.
GUARDS. We suffered much from the treatment inflicted on us by us by our
guards. They v/ere everywhere, shouting at us and mistreating us without reason.
They looked upon us as criminals. They slapped our faces, they kicked us, they
put us into solitary confinement, they ord.ered the cropping of our hair. We
v/ere allowed to be out in the courtyard only one hour daily, and when we had
to go to the toilets we were obliged to creep stealthily along the walls. One
day, returning from the toilet, I had not hidden well enough and had been seen
by the guards. They punished me to -oick. up all papers and other debris, that
had accumula.ted in tee courtyard. This job lasted three hours. After a while,
quite broken broken from fatigue, I slowed down my work, but the guard was on
the watch. He slapped my face and hit me with the rifle but.
Smoking was strictly prohibited and the guards capitalized on this. They
secretly brought cigarettes into the camp and sold them for Frs. 120 a piece i.e.
Frs. 2.400 per package. They also sold one piece of sugar for 15/20 Francs,
200 gr of bread for Frs. 300 etc. etc.
From the room which I occupied we ceo.Id get a glimpse of our families at a
distance of 150m. This was a great comfort to us but it did not last, one
morning all windows going to the street were painted blue, they were locked,
never to be opened again.
I do not speak of all the other hardships which affected some of us deeply, We
lived through unbelievable tribulations which we will not easily forget.
C 0M P IE G N E
On December 12, 1941, around 4 p.m. a column of busgee with German soldiers
approached the camp. The sound of a whistle. All internees were summoned to
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assemble in the courtyard within 5 minutes, with all thfeir luggage. It v/as a
tragic moment. In the dormitories the guards forced the internees to hurry,
There was an indiscribable turmoil. Finally, around 6 p.m., during a terrible
downpour, 300 names were called. Mine was among them. Vfe stepped out of the
ranks, carrying our luggage. The Germans surrounded us and very brutally,
hitting us with the buts of their rifles, led us to the busses. They wrested
our luggage from us, authorizing only one bundle per person. All the rest remained
in Drancy. I never found anything I had left there. The busses brought us to the
Gare du Nord where a train with ?00 additional Jews, who had been arrested during
the previous day, v/as waiting for us. Every compartment was guarded by a soldier
with fixed bayonet. We were not allowed to speak. We did not know where we were
going. It was raining and very cold. We v/ere sM. terrified. What would become of
us? The Germans on the platform of the station were silent. It was infernal.
Around 10 p.m. the train left. Vie all were ghastly pale. Rumors v/ere spreading
that we were hostages to be transferred to Germany. Finally, around 1 a.m. ve
arrived in Compiegne. Encircled by Germans, who were yelling atjus, we started
marching. It was raining. Sick and old people collapsed. The Germans hit them
with their rifle buts and forced them to continue to walk, they did not let us
slow down. They kicked us. Finally we reached Royalieu.
Royalieu or Camp de Compiegne is called by the Germans Staleg 121. It consists of
old military barrr-cks. The camp is divided into three parts. One was occupied
by Americans and Yougoslaves who had been arrested as belligerents, the second
housed, about 1.500 communists, and the third v/as to accomodate us. We were
exhausted from fatigue and fear, Straw had. been put into our dormitories on which
we stretched out. The following day we revived.
The Americans and the communists, although prohibited to communicate v/ith us,
helped us much. They found means to supply us with food. The Germans were very
tough. They insulted and kicked us continuously. It was very cold. There were two
)
roll calls per day, morning and night, and we had to stay in the courtyard
for 30 minutes.
Some of us, including myself, had frosen feet. Great difficulties to be
excepted from the roll call. We had to go or submit to punishment. There v/ere
lots of vermin, lice etc. No parcels. A great mystery surrounded us. By the end
of January we received a few beds. Our food consisted of: herb tea for breakfast;
for lunch a soup of better quality than that we v/ere given in Drancy; for dinner
herb tea with 10 gr of margarine. The daily bread ration, a loaf for 4, sometimes
for 5 persons. The Red Cross, through some outside intervention, brought us some
food, once a week. The Red Cross truck v/as unloaded outside the camp since it
was not allowed to enter it. Once a week we urexEreeeiwed some logs, just enough
for one day. Last but not least, a terror regime with savage brutal guards. I
left Corapiegne in February 1942 as a national of a neutral country. I learned
that at the end of March my comrades of captivity v/ere deported.
nf