A new plaque was unveiled in Paris in memory of the victims of the so-called “green ticket round-up,” (rafle du billet vert) the first wave of mass arrests of Jews under the Vichy regime.
The plaque was unveiled on rue Édouard Pailleron in Paris, in tribute to the 3,710 foreign Jews arrested during the Round-up on 14 May 1941.
The ceremony took place in the presence of François Dagnaud, Mayor of the 19th arrondissement of Paris, Laurence Patrice, Deputy Mayor of Paris – Remembrance and Veterans and Elie Korchia, President of the Central Consistory of France.
A year ago, the Mémorial de la Shoah announced the acquisition of five contact sheets, or 98 photographs.
This previously unpublished reportage details each stage of the first mass arrest of Jews in Paris, on 14 May 1941, at the initiative of the German authorities, by the French police. The 98 photographs allow us to follow the progress of the round-up in all its stages and over time.
One day earlier, 6,694 foreign Jewish men in Paris received a green summons from the French police to “examine their situation”. More than half of them, thinking they were fulfilling an administrative formality, went to the centres indicated on the summons, in particular to the Minimes barracks and the Napoleon barracks in Paris-Centre, at 33 rue de la Grange-aux-Belles (10th arrondissement).
They were immediately placed under arrest and immediately transferred to the Austerlitz station (13th). They were deported the same day to the camps in the Loiret, about 100 km south of the capital. These camps, located in Pithiviers, Jargeau and Beaune-la-Rolande, were transit camps used to group together Jewish prisoners before deporting them to extermination camps.
Of the 3,710 Jews arrested during the Green Ticket Roundup, 1,700 were interned in Pithiviers and 2,000 in Beaune-la-Rolande. As prisoners, they waited for many months without knowing what awaited them. Around 700 men managed to escape, but the remaining 3,000 prisoners were sent to Auschwitz.
The Roundup marked the beginning of mass arrests in the occupied zone. It led to the internment of 3,710 Jews and preceded by a few months the roundups of the summer of 1942, including that of Vél’ d’Hiv’.
Last year, the Mémorial de la Shoah announced the acquisition of five sheets, consisting of 98 photographs. The photographs details each stage of the first mass arrest of Jews in Paris at the initiative of the German authorities, by the French police. The 98 photographs make it possible to follow the progress of the round-up in all its stages and over time.
Also last year, on the 80th anniversary of the Roundup, commemorative plaques, were also placed at the Austerlitz train station, the Japy gymnasium (11th arrondissement) and the Tourelles barracks (20th arrondissement), were the arrestees were gathered.
