DRANCY

DRANCY, small town near Paris where an internment camp was established by the Germans late in 1940. It became the largest center for the deportation of Jews from France. Beginning on August 20, 1941, it was reserved exclusively for Jews. They were deported from there "to the East" from July 19, 1942, until the camp was liberated on August 17, 1944. On that date some 1,500 internees were still there. The camp was directed by high Gestapo officers stationed in France. More than 61,000 persons were sent from Drancy to the death camps. The camp has been transformed into an apartment complex for low-in-come families. At the site, there are a number of memorial plaques and a small museum housed in a cattle car that was used to transport Jews during World War II. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Wellers, De Drancy à Auschwitz (1946); Z. Szajkowski, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer 1939 – 1945 (1966), 262 (includes bibliography). (Shaul Esh / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)