Drancy internment camp

internment camp for Jews in occupied France during World War II

Drancy internment camp was a concentration camp in France during its occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was organised in 1941 to collect French Jews and particularly foreign Jews who had escaped to France before the invasion by the Germans. After that, they were put on railroad carts and sent east, to concentration camps, from which most did not return alive. Nearly 70,000 people were rounded up, including resistance fighters, Roma people, and others considered "undesirable". Until 1943, the camp was administered by French police under German supervision. After this, the French were removed and replaced by German SS men led by Alois Brunner, which increased the efficiency of the deportations.

When the camp was liberated in 1944, about 1,500 people remained. Brunner was later tried (in absence) and sentenced to death, but remained at large until his death in 2010.