CONVOI DES 31000

In January 1942, French policemen began a special mission, in collaboration with Nazi officials, to seize those in the Resistance. 230 women were captured and sent to a German prison.

Apart from being women resisters, few had collaborated together before being captured and had little in common. Some were from rural France, others from big cities; their professions ranged from doctor and midwife, to secretary, hairdresser and teacher; their ages ran between 17 and 67; some were single, others were grandparents; and though nearly half of them communists, others were not. 

On 24 January 1943, the women were loaded into a cattle car transport called “Convoi des 31000” and transferred to Auschwitz. They were the only group of non-Jewish women sent to death camps during the Nazi occupation. Despite being treated better than the camp’s Jewish population, only 80 of the 230 women were still alive within 10 weeks of their arrival — some died from typhus, starvation and dysentery. Others by gassing, gunshot or as victims of "the race" of 10 February 1943.

Of the 230 women, only 49 survived. In her book A Train in Winter, Caroline Moorehead emphasized that friendship helped them get through the hardships they endured. Separated from home and loved ones, their common experience conquered divisions of age, education, profession and class as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.

Detailed biographies may be found for these women by clicking HERE. The link will take you to a page where they are listed by last name. It is in French:

31779 Jeanne "Muguette" Borderie-Alexandre (1912-1943)
31777 Marie "Mariette" Alizon (1921-1943)
31776 Simone “Poupette” Alizon (1925-) *
31807 Helene Bolleau-Allaire (1924-) *
31778 Maria "Josee" Alonso (1910-1943)
31775 Helene Demangeat-Antoine (1898-1943)
31792 Yvonne T.-B. (1917-1943) =
31651 Marie-Jeanne Gantou-Bauer (1913-1984) *
31842 Germaine Pirou-Berger (1918-) *
31837 Eugenia "Jeanne-the-Russian" Beskine (1889-1943) =
31763 Antoinette Tressard-Besseyre (1919-) *
31771 Antoinette Meterreau-Bibault (1893-1943)
31734 Felicienne Pintos-Bierge (1914-1996) *
31652 Rosette Amelie Louise Blanc (1919-1943)
31737 Claudine Pinet-Blateau (1911-1981) *
31653 Yvonne Vauder-Blech (1907-1943)
31806 Emma Laumondais-Bolleau (1901-1943)
31848 Josee Bonenfant (-1943)
31... Yvonne Bonnard (1899-1943)
31650 Christiane "Cecile" Charua-Borras (1915-) *
31815 Leona Clemence Raveau-Boullard (1885-1943)
31... Alice Paris-Boulet (1914-1943)
31792 Yvonne Toublanc-Boutgourg (1908-)
31694 Sophie Czeposka-Brabander (1923-1943) =
31695 Helene Brabander (-1943)
31747 Georgette Fourcade-Bret (1905-1943)
31705 Simone Victorine Pichon-Brugal (1897-1943)
31808 Marcelle Bureau (1923-1943)
31738 Alice Gardelle-Cailbrault (1907-1943)
31740 Germaine Charles-Cantelaube (1908-1943)
31760 Yvonne Calmels-Carre (1897-1943)
31655 Vincentella "Danielle" Perini-Casanova (1909-1943) +
31719 Helene Vervin-Castera (1887-1943)
31691 Yvonne Richard-Cave (1896-1943)
31656 Camille Chaut-Champion (1898-1943)
31824 Marie-Mathilde Sapin-Chaux(1876-1943)
31796 Marguerite-Germaine Boucher-Chavaroc (1894-1943)
31687 Marie-Elisa Nordmann-Cohen (1910-1993) *
31853 Marie-Louise "Marilou" Mechain-Columbain (1920-1998) *
31657 Marguerite Helleringer-Corringer (1902-1999) *
31830 Renee Raquet-Cossin (1914-1943)
31765 Suzanne Boineau-Costentin (1893-1943)
31804 Sylviane Coupet (1925-1943)
31799 Yvonne-Marie Maguer-Courillat (1911-1943)
31772 Jeanne Couteau (1901-1943)
31685 Marie-Claude Vogel-Vaillant Couturier (1912-1996) * +
31690 Madeleine Demiot-Damous (1913-1943)
31625 Vittoria "Viva" Nenni-Daubeuf (1915-1943)
31658 Simone Noyer-David (1921-1943)
31639 Madeleine Dechavassine (1900-) *
31756 Charlotte Dauriat-Decock (1901-1945)
31659 Alida Charbonnier-Delasalle (1907-) *
31773 Rachel Deniau (1899-1943)
31767 Aimee Godefroy-Doridat (1905- / sister-in-law to Olga Godefroy) *
31762 Charlotte Merlin-Douillot (1900-1943 / mother to Rolande Vandaele)
31808 Germaine Legarde-Drapron (1903-) *
31693 Marie Corot-Dubois (1890-1943)
31746 Aurelle "Marie-Louise" Dudon-Ducros (1903-1943)
31661 Charlotte Delbo-Dudach (1913-1985) * +
31731 Elisabeth "Babet" Dufour-Dupeyron (1914-1943)
31703 Marie-Jeanne "Lili" Dupont (1921-) *
31751 Charlotte Clemence Henriette "Mauricette" Dupuis (1894-1943)
31727 Noemie Lesterp-Durand (1890-1943 / sister to Rachel Fernandez) =
31764 Simone Eiffes (1920-1943)
31662 Yvonne Lachaume-Emorine (1912-1942)
31724 Anne-Marie "Annette" Manchefaud-Epaud (1900-1943)
31625 Gabrielle Papillon-Ethis (1896-1943 / aunt to Henriette Pizzoli)
31723 Rachel Lesterp-Fernandez (1895-1943 / sister to Noemie Durand)
31816 Marie-Marcelle "Mitzy" Ferry (1918-1988) *
31663 Yvette Feuillet (1920-1943)
31839 Marie-Therese Naudin-Fleury (1907-1943)
31854 Rose-Michelle "Rosie" Floch (1925-1943)
31789 Emilie Angeline "Line" Porcher-Fourmy (1880-1943)
31793 Helene Pellault-Fournier (1904-1994) *
31826 Marcelle Fuglesang (1903-1943)
31... Marie Thomas-Gabb (1891-1943)
31642 Madeleine Van Hyfte-Galesloot (1908-1943)
31849 Yvonne-Renee Lucie Gallois (1921-1943)
31811 Suzanne Leblond-Gascard (1901-1943)
31833 Laure Gatet (1913-1943)
31750 Raymonde Le Margueresse-Georges (1917-1943)
31844 Sophie Richet-Gigand (1897-1943 / mother to Andree Gigand) =
31845 Andree Gigand (1921-1943 / daughter to Sophie Gigand)
31743 Yolande Pica-Gili (1922- /sister to Aurore Pica) *
31632 Angele-Marcelle "Renee" Girard (1894-1943)
31706 Germaine-Emma Girard (1904-1943)
31766 Olga Camus-Godefroy (1906-1943 / sister-in-law to Aimee Doridat)
31753 Marcelle "Paulette" Gourmelon (1924-1943)
31780 Franciska "Cica" Goutayer (1900-1943)
31770 Jeanne-Claire Bergoend-Grandperret (1896-1943)
31664 Claudine Guerin (1925-1943)
31729 Aminthe Auger-Guillon (1884-1943 / mother-in-law to Yvette Guillon) =
31730 Yvette Sardet-Guillon (1911-1943 / daughter-in-law to Aminthe Guillon) =
31631 Jeanne Guivarch-Guyot (1913-1945)
31636 Adrianne "Linotte" Coston-Hardenberg (1906-1943)
31755 Helene Hascoet (1910-1943)
31802 Adelaide "Heidi"  Hautval (1906-1988) * +
31832 Marthe "Violette" Guay-Hebrard (1911-1943)
31781 Lucette Suzanne Magui-Herbassier (1914-1943)
31... Jeanne "Janine" Herschtel (1911-1943)
31768 Jeanne Herve (1901-1943)
31699 Henriette Schmidt-Carr/Heussler (1912-1943)
31630 Marguerite-Josephine Hudelaine-Houdart (1904-1943)
31688 Henriette Merlin-L'Huillier (-1943)
31813 Jeanne Larcher-Humbert (1915-1943)
31827 Anna Karpen-Jacquat (1894-1943)
31782 Germaine Mouze-Jaunay (1898-1943)
31665 Marie-Louise Bonnat-Jourdan (1899-1943)
31759 Suzanne-Renee Juhem (1912-1943)
31698 Irina Byczeck-Karchewska (1899-1943)
31783 Emilia "Lea" Baliteau-Kerisit (1895-1943)
31707 Karolina Konefal (1920-1943)
31700 Eugenie Korzeniowska (1901-1943) =
31814 Marguerite Urgon-Kotlerewsky (1903-1943)
31795 Lina Kuhn or Kuhne (1908-1943)
31717 Georgette Reau-Lacabanne (1910-1943)
31666 Madeleine "Michele" Guitton-Laffitte (1914-1943)
31667 Gisele Lung-Laguesse (1915-1943)
31821 Lea Durbecq-Lambert (1892-1943)
31800 Therese Gady-Lamboy (1918-) *
31784 Fabienne Landy (1921-1943)
31668 Lucienne Langlois (1914-1943)
31721 Berthe Lescure-Lapeyrade (1895-1943) =
31... Suzanne Lasne (1924-1943)
31748 Fernande Lieval-Laurent (1902-1965)*
31785 Marcelle Mardelle-Laurillou (1914-1943)
31726 Lucienne "Nicole" Michaud-Lautissier (1923-) *
31669 Louise "Nayette" Amand-Lavigne (1904-1943)
31692 Luciennt Lebreton (1905-1943)
31841 Angele "Daniele" Denonne-Leduc (1891-1943)
31670 Marcelle Beziau-Lemasson (1909-) *
31786 Elisabeth-Marcelle Le Porte (1919-1943)
31835 Marguerite Joubert-Lermite (1910-1943)
31671 Marie Lesage (1898-1943)
31733 Charlotte Zanker-Lescure (1902-1943)
31803 Sophie Schaud-Licht (1905-1943)
31704 Yvonne Rose Llucia (1910-1943)
31672 Simone Fougere-Loche (1913-1943)*
31829 Alice Loeb (1891-1943)
31828 Louise Le Du-Loquet (1901-1943)
31835 Yvonne Loriou (1905-1943)
31757 Louise Marie-Losserand (1904-) *
31637 Jeannette “Carmen” Serre-Louis (1919-)*
31673 Louise Magadur (1899-)*
31... Suzanne Potet-Maillard (1894-1943)
31648 Lucienne Caccia-Mansuy (1915-2007) *
31787 Yvette Champion-Marival (1915-1943)
31696 Luz-Higinia Goni-Martos (1906-1943)
31788 Germaine Maurice (1918-1943)
31674 Henriette Caillor-Mauvais (1906-) *
31708 Olga Meru-Melin (1913-1945)
31851 Angele Mercier (1919-1943)
31818 Georgette "Jo" Lyet-Mesmer (1913-1943)
31... Suzanne Meugnot (1896-1943)
31675 Marthe Brillouet-Meynard (1912-1973) *
31676 Renee "Marcelle" Michaux (1920-1943)
31709 Simone Blanche Julie Brunet-Miternique (1906-1943) =
31677 Gisele Mollet (1920-1943)
31686 Suzanne Momon (1896-1943)
31820 Denise Cacaly-Moret (1919-1944)
31710 Marie-Louise Cribier-Morin (1888-1943 / mother to Madeleine Morin)
31... Madeleine Morin (1922-1943) / daughter to Marie-Louise Morin)
31825 Marie-Louise "Lisette" Moru (1925-1943)
31819 Marcelle Parate-Mourot (1918-) *
31702 Anna Nizinska (1917-1943)
31678 Madeleine Plantevigne-Normand (1897-1943)
31718 Yvonne Moudoulaud-Noutari (Yvette De Bordeaux / 1915-1944)
31660 Madeleine Dissoubray-Odru (1917-2012)*
31797 Toussainte "Nine" Oppici (1905-1943)
31801 Anne-Marie Borsch-Ostrowska (1900-1943)
31689 Lucienne Palluy (1910-1943)
31684 Helene Langevin-Solomon (1909-1995) * +
31728 Yvonne Pateau-Lateau (1901-1943)
31794 Eugenie Pakula-Pauquet (1922-) *
31633 Lucie "Lucette" Pecheux (1905-1943)
31817 Marie-Jeanne Pennec (1909-) *
31644 Madeleine Doiret-Perriot (1920-2001)*
31742 Aurore Pica (1924-1943 / sister to Yolande Gill)
31679 Germaine Morigot-Pican (1901-) *
31634 Yvonne Picard (1921-1943)
31812 Suzanne Buffard-Pierre (1912-1943)
31629 Renee "Bichette"Legros-Pitiot (1921-) *
31626 Henriette Papillon-Pizzoli (1920-1943 / niece to Gabrielle Ethis)
31769 Juliette Meme-Poirier (1918-1943)
31680 Marie "Mai" Fourcade-Politzer (1905-1943) +
31... Pauline Lafabrier-Pomies (1877-1943) =
31638 Delphine Jallat-Presset (1900-1943)
31722 Lucienne Ferre-Proux (1922-1943)
31654 Paulette "Pepee" Parant-Prunieres (1918-) *
31720 Marie-Therese Souriel-Puyoou (1897-1943)
31641 Jacqueline Quatremaire (1918-1943)
31725 Paula Trapy-Rabeaux (1911-1943)
31754 Constance Rappenau (1879-1943) =
31682 Germaine Renaud (1908-1943)
31716 Germaine Perraux-Renaudin (1906-1968) *
31840? Marguerite Cardinet-Richier (1881-1943 / mother to Armande & Odette Richier)
31846? Armande Richier (1916-1942 / daughter to Marguerite Richier)
31847? Odette Richier (1911-1943 / daughter to Marguerite Richier)
31741 Anne Riffaud-Richon (1898-1943)
31798 Gabrielle Bergin-Richoux (1894-1943)
31... Francine Rondeaux (1901-1943)
31850 Georgette Rostaing (1911-1943)
31701 Felicia "Lucia" Rostkowska (1908-1943)
31646 Denise Roucayrol (1901-1943)
31681 Suzanne Clement-Roze (1904-1943)
31838 Esterina Ruju (1885-1943)
31745 Leonie Daubigny-Sabail (1891-1943)
31713 Anna Gries-Sabot (1898-1943)
31683 Berthe-Celina Fays-Sabourault (1904-1943)
31645 Raymonde "Mounette" Salez (1919-1943)
31758 Simone Sampaix (1924-) *
31647 Alphonsine Guiard-Seibert (1899-1945)
31752 Leonie Seignolle (1901-)
31790 Raymonde Delalande-Sergent (1903-1943)
31823 Julia Slusarczyk (1902-) *
31791 Yvonne Houdayer-Souchaud (1897-1943)
31739 Jeanne Renon-Souque (1894-1943)
31805 Marguerite Battais-Stora (1895-1943)
31714 Andree Tamise (1922-1943)
31715 Gilberte Tamise (1912-2009) *
31642 Lucienne "Lulu" Serre-Thevenin (1917-2009) *
31640 Jeanne Thiebault (1909-1942)
31848 Josephine "Mado" Bizarri-Umido (1903-1943)
31732 Marguerite "Margot" Maurin-Valina (1906-1943)
31761 Rolande Douillot-Vandaele (1918- / daughter to Charlotte Douillot)*
31749 Theodora Disper-Van Dam (1882-1943 / mother to Reyna van Dam) =
31831 Reyna van Dam (1924-1943 /daughter to Theodora van Dam)
31697 Jakoba Van Der Lee (1891-1943) =
31810 Alice Varailhon (1897-1943)
31822 Alice Lumbroso-Viterbo (1895-1943) =
31744 Madeleine Davy-Zani (1915-1943)

=Victim of "The Race"
*Survived Auschwitz
+See Blog Post

CONVOI DES 27000

A CONVOY OF WOMEN 1944-1945 

by Pierre-Emmanuel Dufayel

Review found/translated from: http://clio-cr.clionautes.org
Published: Monday, February 20, 2012

The Vendémiaire editions, in their collection "Investigations" publish a new book, based on research by Pierre-Emmanuel Dufayel, historian, doctoral student at the University of Caen Lower Normandy within the quantitative history Research Centre, and a member the research team at the Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation.

This historian devotes his research to French deported due to repression measures. They were more than 9,000, or 10% of the deportees of "political" nature listed by the Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation. In the spirit of the collection, it is a historical work undertaken from primary sources, archives and written testimonies.

Pierre-Emmanuel Dufayel dedicates this work to the study of the convoy of a thousand women deported from Compiegne, January 31, 1944, for the women's concentration camp Ravensbrück, whose identity is summed up upon arrival at camp , their serial numbers between 27,030 and 27,988 They become the "27000".

Of all the convoys of women, it is the only one for which a transport list has been preserved. Saved from destruction, the document for service at the camp was maintained by the secretaries held in the infirmary. As for other transport women it is sometimes difficult to determine accurately the identity of the remote, it delivers the names, first names, dates of birth, date and place of some transfers. To this are added major source of featured articles written by deportees on their return to obtain the statute of "political deported" and "CERD".

A problematic fueled by questions of historiography, a thorough analysis of sources, a rigorous and systematic review, allowing Pierre-Emmanuel Dufayel presented in eight chapters women of the convoy, the conditions of their arrest, internment and their journey, and their ordeal (and resistance) in the camp or in work Kommandos who depend on him for their return at last.

Who were the "27000"?

Over 70% of them were resistant, 75 members of different organizations. Three quarters were working for intelligence networks and escape, others were members of the great movements of resistance. Some had taken part in the armed struggle against the occupier, others parachuting operations or activities Assistance resistant families interned or deported, and others had participated in breakout networks; many had done intelligence work or had participated in the drafting, printing and distribution of newspapers and leaflets. More than 200 of them, of the 500 resistant whose author was able to identify the business, were liaison officers. Nearly half of the officers and members of the organizations had provided food and shelter to the resistance hunted, airmen fled or refractory seeking asylum, while hiding weapons, materials, equipment, or harboring resistant illegal. About 85% of them had entered the Resistance in 1942 and 1943.

Besides these explicitly committed women, we find a group of prisoners who, without having acted in an organization, had participated in what could be called "civil resistance": a hundred of these women had supported Resistance spontaneously passing housing agents, camouflaging sought clandestine resistance or hiding weapons and materials. Several were arrested for merely expressed their aversion to the Nazi regime, their sympathy for the Allies, or their patriotism. Those that were not were either resistant women, mothers, sisters, girlfriends, often arrested as hostages, either accidentally women arrested in a raid or prostitutes: at least 45 of those deported are arrested in connection with the measures taken to control sexual relations between French and Israeli troops, and thus ensure the safety of the occupied territory.

Just over two thirds of them resided in the departments of the occupied area, especially in large cities. A high proportion had a job, which clearly distinguishes them from the French female population of the time, where more than one in two women had no profession. They were of all generations, almost three-quarters were under 45 years; The oldest of them, Emilia Tillion, mother of Germaine Tillion, network member of the Museum of Man, was 68 years old; the youngest was 17 years old. Two-thirds of these women were married and mothers, including large family.

We see from all these details work quality and importance of the table that allows to draw the realities of the Resistance.

Arrest, conviction and detention

Some have been arrested by German authorities (the first Wehrmacht, Gestapo then) and sentenced by German military courts; the others were by French police, tried in French courts, jailed in French prisons and handed the hands of the German authorities: the story of these women demonstrates the interpenetration of French and German and repressive systems collaboration of the Vichy government. This is usually in this case, activists or sympathizers Communists. The arrest dates clearly show the emphasis and radicalization of repression from the beginning of 1943.

The arrested women were interned in German quarters installed in the French prisons. They were held incommunicado, interrogated and sometimes tortured and jailed in overcrowded jails, malnourished and kept in dreadful conditions promiscuity and unhealthy. The "27000" spend an average of six months in prison before being deported. Period of resistance, but also creating links almost "family", who sometimes maintain even in the concentration camps, and it will become synonymous with survival. ".

Compiegne in Ravensbrück

About two-thirds of women in this convoy were transferred to Compiegne Royallieu-camp during the weeks prior to departure. There they received the registration that will be theirs to Ravensbrück. On January 31, 1944 at dawn, they gathered outside their barracks for a call before setting off for Compiègne Train Station. She discovered the conditions of their journey, "a dusty wooden floor on which a bundle of straw was spread for convenience only iron can tinette converted to sole source of light and oxygen a screened window barbed son ." They arrive at the camp on the night of February 3, 1944.

Then begins the process of dehumanization: they are stripped naked, stripped of everything that could keep them épouillées, showered, accoutred mismatched clothes. They then undergo a period of quarantine, of varying length, during which the previously arrivals are French windows of their blocks warn them of the essence of what you need to know to have more chances to survive. This period is over, most are employed in drudgery Kommandos where the work is extremely difficult. Of these women, five, expecting a child, were returned to France: such a decision "is difficult to explain and remains rare." After August 1944 the Pregnant prisoners give birth in the camp under conditions more appalling; and almost all of the more than 500 infants die.

The concentration camp archipelago
70% of the inmates are sent to an outside Kommando in Ravensbrück, and more or less distant (50 to 550 km). They are first selected by a "commission" comprising representatives of private companies and the head of the labor camp office.They inspect the hands, teeth, the bodies of these women should be scrolled completely naked. They are then sent to the Kommandos they are still employed in the service of the German war industry: manufacturing shells, aircraft engine parts, gas masks, variety of weapons etc. These are almost always Kommandos whose operation is just beginning. The work is hard; monitoring of production is entrusted to foremen foremen and civilians but also to the SS supervisors outside working hours. All the witnesses stressed the extreme brutality of the supervisors and civilian managers.Medical care is almost absent, endless appeals in the cold have not disappeared, but overall are less abused prisoners at the camp so that they remain productive. The bombings and alerts add to the daily terror and, from the winter of 1945, the rations are dwindling.

However, a multifaceted daily resistance is organized. The instructions quickly become clues, telling gestures especially not commit, and that many are seeking to commit for the manufactured parts are faulty. The task requires more precision, more sabotage are unimaginable. The importance of resistance among those deported is probably explained by the fact that, in their great majority, they were resistant before their arrest. Several of them were severely punished or even executed.

Towards the extermination
Ravensbrück was one of the last camps and liberated, by the second half of 1944, convoys from different concentration camps got there. To cope with overcrowding, disposal of the largest possible number of inmates is organized. In early 1945, a provisional gas chamber is installed near the crematorium: Ravensbrück became an extermination camp. About 200 prisoners, among the "27 000" are still present in Ravensbrück on 1 January 1945, when snaps the extermination program. Two thirds they are over 50 years. "The death of this device is the selection of mechanical lower", organized by the head of the office of labor accompanied deputy commander of the camp and two doctors. The women selected are sent to a small camp where living conditions leave almost no chance of survival. Meanwhile dozens of women are from each camp to be gassed in the evening. SS doctors daily round up the inmates they encounter in the camp, women with white hair, complexion too pale, with swollen legs. In late April 1945, the balance sheet is terrible: the 200 detained, at least 35 were gassed and more than 60 others died. But the record is actually heavier, since this murderous program also extended to women employed in Kommandos satellites.

In the last weeks of the war, most of the prisoners of the satellite camps were evacuated in terrifying circumstances: it is the "death marches". Slightly more than 400 women from the convoy of "27000", two thirds of those who have been exploited by many Kommandos, one undergoes the ultimate test evacuations. These steps have been fatal for at least fifteen of them.

"The long way home"
The release of these women circumstances were different depending on where they were located: in the Kommandos, on the roads of death marches, or Ravensbrück. But the journey was always long and painful. Amidst the chaos of the GreatReich collapses, many women are left to themselves for several days, until they are collected by the Allied armies, American in most cases. The worst was the horrors experienced by those that were conducted at the Bergen-Belsen camp. Most "27,000" who survived these terrible conditions returned to France late May and early June 1945, more than a month and a half after release.

Of the 959 women who left Compiègne January 31, 1944, 199 died in the deportation, slightly more than 20% of prisoners. The last months were by far the deadliest and twenty prisoners succumbed after release. Older and less politically engaged were the most vulnerable.

"The return idealized, dreamed of for over a year, is not such that they have imagined. Rather, it will be for many an additional test. Collide with the real, still marked by the universe they just left, the vast majority of these "27000" has a deep confusion (...) For many, the first time the return is accompanied by appalling revelations and suffering (...) Only witnessed the death of their comrades, they must also inform the disappearance of these loved ones (...) Many are shocked by the incomprehension and disbelief of the population. Hurtful words, clumsy remarks, expressions usually unimportant, causing a mixture of indignation and disappointment among these vulnerable women (...) Before this misunderstanding, often felt like tearing the immediate postwar period was marked by a downturn self."

The interest of this work, in the spirit of the collection, is to offer the public a clear and widely accessible text (still accompanied by more than 200 notes), fruit of work based on clearly identified sources archive and fed a perfect knowledge of historiography. It will interest those who are eager to read something new about a topic they know, but it will also allow those who do not know him, to experience most aspects of the deportation through the adventure of these courageous women .

© Joel Drogland

JH NOTES:

• The 959 women of the "27000" were deported from the Paris, Montluc, Fresnes, Dijon and Toulon prisons. 
• They were assigned identification numbers 27030-27988. Their concentration camp badges patches bore an inverted "V" but, unlike other political prisoners, the letter "F" (France) was not added in order to further crush French national pride. 
• All French political prisoners, including women of the Convoi des 31000, were eventually reassigned to the new Block 32. None of them knew it at the time, but they had been designated NN (Nacht und Nebel), meaning they were supposed to literally disappear into the night and fog, and nobody would ever know where.

CONCENTRATION CAMP BADGES & NUMBERS

The top row of triangles on this chart shows all the colors of the badges worn by the prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.

• Red was for Communists, Social Democrats, anarchists and other "enemies of the state". 
• Green was for German criminals who had committed two or more crimes.
• Blue was for foreign forced laborers. 
• Brown was for the Sinti and Gypsies (Roma).
• Pink was for homosexuals. 
• Purple was for Jehovah's Witnesses (Bibelforscher).
• Black was for asocials, a catch-all term for vagrants, bums, prostitutes, hobos, perverts, alcoholics who were living on the streets, or anyone who didn't have a permanent address. The "work-shy," or those who were arrested because they refused to work, wore a black badge.

Prior to 1942, Gypsy men wore a black triangle. They were arrested and imprisoned for being asocial ... meaning they didn't have a permanent address ... or for being "work-shy" because they were not employed. Every male citizen in Nazi Germany, who was capable of working, was required to take a job and they were not allowed to quit their job without permission. Gypsy women were arrested under the asocial category if they were prostitutes. In 1942, Gypsy families were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz where they were kept separately in a "family camp." After the Gypsy camp was closed, some of the prisoners were sent to Buchenwald. Others were murdered in the gas chamber.

The second row shows the same colors with a matching bar over the triangle. The bar designated a "second-timer", or a prisoner who had been released and was then arrested again for a second offense. These prisoners were isolated from the general camp population and were not allowed privileges. Their work assignments were much more difficult. Many of the prisoners, including some Jews in the early days at Dachau, were released after they had been "rehabilitated."

The black circles under the badges in the third row designate prisoners who were assigned to the penal colony. They were given the most difficult work assignments, usually in a rock quarry or gravel pit. Many of the camp locations were chosen because they were near a quarry which could furnish building materials for the new buildings Hitler was planning for Berlin and Linz, Austria, his former home town. Dachau had a gravel pit which was located where the Carmelite convent now stands.

The fourth row shows yellow triangles with each of the regular triangle colors placed on the top, forming a six-pointed star. These badges were worn by Jews and showed their classification as political prisoners, criminals, foreign forced laborers, homosexuals or asocials:

Jewish political prisoners wore a yellow triangle with a red triangle on top. Jews who wore a white triangle over a yellow one were called Jüdisher Rassenschänder. A black triangle designated an a-social (Asozialer). A Jewish a-social was a Jüdisher Asozialer who wore a black triangle over a yellow one. A green triangle meant a criminal who was a repeat offender; Jewish criminals wore a green triangle over a yellow one and were called Jüdisher Befristeter Vorbeugeshäftlinge or Jewish prisoners in limited preventive custody.

A red triangle pointing downward designated a non-Jewish political prisoner. A letter within the triangle indicated the prisoner's origin ... Poland or France for example. If the red triangle was pointing upward, it designated a German political prisoner.

No Jews were sent to a concentration camp just for being Jewish until November 1938 when 30,000 German Jews were arrested and approximately 10,000 were sent to each of the major camps: Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. Most of them were released within a few weeks, but only if they agreed to leave Germany within six months. Many of them ended up going to Shanghai because they could not get visas to any country and, during the war, they were interned by the Japanese.

Beginning in February 1942, all of the Jews in Germany and the Nazi occupied countries were systematically rounded up and sent to the death camps in what is now Poland.

The fifth row shows a yellow triangle with another yellow triangle (bordered in black) on top of it. This badge designated a Jew who was arrested for race defilement, which meant having sex with a non-Jew in violation of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

All prisoners at the Nazi concentration camps were assigned an identification number and at roll call, they had to answer when their number was called. The number was written on a white rectangle which each prisoner had to wear on his uniform.

A prison uniform is shown on the chart above with the placement of the badge on either the shirt or the pants. Prisoners were not required to wear a striped uniform. Photographs displayed in the Dachau museum, taken in 1938, show most of the prisoners wearing a regular shirt and striped pants with their prison number worn on their pant's leg.

Armbands

Armbands were used within the camps to identify kapos, camp "police" (detainees assigned to keep order among their fellow detainees), and certain work crew leaders. Armbands were also in use among detainees sent to perform forced labor in factories outside the camps.

Identification Numbers

The common belief is that all concentration camps tattooed identification numbers on prisoners ... not true. The Auschwitz concentration camp (including Auschwiz I, Auschwitz/Birgenau and Monowitz) was the only location in which prisoners were systematically tattooed. The misconception came about because Auschwitz inmates were often sent to other camps. 

As thousands of Soviet POWs arrived at Auschwitz in the autumn of 1941, camp authorities began to tattoo prisoners for identification purposes. In the spring of 1943, the authorities adopted the practice of tattooing almost all previously registered and newly arrived prisoners, including female prisoners. Exceptions to this practice were prisoners of German nationality and “reeducation prisoners,” who were held in a separate compound. “Reeducation prisoners,” or “labor-education prisoners,” were non-Jewish persons of virtually all European nationalities (but at Auschwitz primarily Germans, Czechs, Poles and Soviet civilians) who had run afoul of the harsh labor discipline imposed on civilian laborers in areas under German control.

Originally, a special metal stamp, holding interchangeable numbers made up of needles approx. one centimeter long was used. The number was punched onto the prisoner's upper chest and rubbed with ink. When metal stamps became impractical, a single-needle device was introduced, which pierced the outlines of the identification number onto the skin.

Note: The women of Convoi des 31000 were sent to Auschwitz.

Charlotte Delbo-Dudach (1913-1985)

Charlotte Delbo was born in Vigneux-sur-Seine, Essone on 10 August 1913. In 1934 she married George Dudach and later went to work for actor and threatical producer Louis Jouvet. She was with his company in Buenos Aires when the Germans occupied France in 1940.

In 1941 Philippe Petain, leader of the collaborationist Vichy regime, established special courts in 1941 to deal with members of the resistance. Among those put to death was a young architect friend. "I can't stand being safe while others are guillotined", she told Jouvet. "I won't be able to look anyone in the eye."

She returned to Paris where her husband was already active in the Resistance as the assigned courier for the internationally famous poet Louis Aragon. The couple spent much of that winter printing and distributing pamphlets and other anti-Nazi Germany reading material. They became part of the group around communist philosopher Georges Politzer, and took an active role in publishing the underground journal Lettres Françaises.

On 2 March 1942 police followed a careless courier to their apartment, and arrested them. The courier was able to escape from a back window. George was shot the morning of 23 May after being allowed to bid his wife farewell.

Charlotte was held in transit camps near Paris for the rest of the year. Then on 23 January 1943 she and 229 other Frenchwomen, imprisoned for their resistance activities, were put on a train for the Auschwitz concentration camp. She wrote about this experience later in Le convoi du 24 janvier (published in English as Convoy to Auschwitz). The convoy entered camp legend as the only one to enter the gates singing La Marseillaise. It was partly thanks to the presence of several scientists among the prisoners that a few, Delbo included, were selected to farm kok-saghyz at the Raisko satellite camp and survived. In 1945, as the war drew to a close, they were released to the custody of the Swedish chapter of the International Red Cross. After recuperating, Charlotte returned to France.

She wrote her major work, the trilogy published as Auschwitz and After (None of Us Will Return, Useless Knowledge and The Measure of Our Days) in the years immediately after the war. To give the book the test of time, and because of her fear it would not do justice to the greatest tragedy humanity had known, she held off on publishing the first part until 1965. The final volumes were published in 1970 and 1971. The play Qui Rapportera Ces Paroles? (Who Will Carry the Word?) is about her experience at Birkenau.

In later years she abandoned Communism, influenced like other resister-survivors by the exposure of concentration camps in the Soviet Union. During the 1960s she worked for the United Nations and philosopher Henri Lefebvre, who had worked with Politzer before the war. She died of lung cancer in 1985.

Adelaide Hautval (1906-1988)

Adelaide Hautval was born to a Protestant family in Hohwald (Bas Rhin), France in 1906. She studied medicine in Strasbourg, going on to work in several psychiatric wards.

In April 1942, she was told of the death of her mother who lived in occupied Paris. Wishing to attend her mother's burial, Adelaide asked German authorities for permission to cross the demarcation line separating the two zones of France and was refused. Her attempt to make a crossing without the permit failed: Adelaide was arrested by the German police and transferred to the prison in Bourges.

That June, Jewish prisoners wearing the yellow patch began to arrive at the prison. As she awaited her, she protested the harsh treatment of Jewish prisoners who were incarcerated with her. The reply was that from now on she would share their fate. Undeterred, Adelaide pinned a piece of yellow paper to her clothing that read, "Friend of the Jews."

After incarceration in several detention camps, she was sent with 200 other French women to Auschwitz in January 1943 on a train that became known as the Convoi des 31000. She was housed with 500 Jewish women who nicknamed her "the saint."

She applied her medical knowledge to treat Jewish prisoners who had contracted typhus, secluding them in a separate part of the block, in order to prevent contagion. Employed as a physician by the camp commander, she refrained from reporting the prisoners’ illness and thereby spared them immediate death. She treated Jewish patients with boundless dedication, and her gentle hands and warm words were of inestimable value to Jews in the hell of Auschwitz. “Here,” she said, in words engraved on the prisoners’ memory, “we are all under sentence of death. Let us behave like human beings as long as we are alive.”

Adelaide was assigned to Dr. Eduard Wirths who conducted sterilization experiments on Jewish women in the infamous Block 10 at Auschwitz. She quickly discovered that the experiments were performed without anesthesia. When forced to assist in the surgical sterilization of a young woman from Greece, Dr. Hautval told Dr. Wirth that she would never again attend such a procedure. When Wirth asked Dr. Hautval: “Don’t you see that these people are different from you?” she replied, “In this camp, many people are different from me. You, for example.” 

After her confrontation with Dr. Wirths, she was advised to stay out of sight. She feared retribution but was not punished. In August 1944 she was moved to Ravensbruck where she continued to practice medicine and heal prisoners as much as possible until the camp liberated in April 1945. When she returned to France, her health had been permanently impaired.

Helene Langevin-Solomon (1909-1995)

Helene Langevin was the daughter of the great scholar Paul Langevin and wife of writer Jacques Solomon, who she married in 1929.

On 2 March 1942, Jacques was arrested in a Paris cafe where he was having a working meeting for L'Universite'. He was interned at the police station until March 20, then at Cherche-Midi prison until May 11 and finally at La Sante Prison. He was handed over to the Germans and shot as a hostage on May 23 at Fort Mont-Valerien.

Helene was arrested on 10 March 1942 and eventually put on the Convoi des 31000 for Auschwicz. She was later transferred to Ravensbruck.

Marie "Mai" Larcade-Politzer (1905-1943)

Marie Larcade was born in Biarritz, France on 15 August 1905. She married philosopher Georges Politzer.

She was arrested with other members of the resistance and sent to Auschwitz on the famous 24 October 1943 deportation convoy to Sachsenhausen. She died at there of typhus on 6 Mar 1943.

Danielle Perini-Casanova (1909-1943)

Vincentelli Perini (aka Danielle Casanova) was born  on 9 January 1909. She trained at the Paris Dental School where she discovered the Federal Union of Students. There she met her future husband, Laurent Casanova.

She joined the Communist Youth in 1928 and soon began to call herself "Danielle". In June 1932 she joined the Central Committee of the movement at the Seventh Congress of June 1932, and took up its direction in February 1934 where she was the only woman.

After the French Communist Youth was banned in September 1939, Danielle went into hiding. She wrote for the newspaper Le Trait de l'Union. From October 1940, after the fall of France, she helped set up women's committees in the Paris region, while still writing for the underground press, especially Pensée Libre (Free Thought). She also founded la Voix des Femmes (Women's Voice).

Danielle organized demonstrations against the occupying forces, notably the events of 8 & 11 November 1940 - the result of Professor Paul Langevin's arrest. On 2 August 1941 she met Albert Ouzoulias in Montparnasse and placed him in charge of the Bataillons de la Jeunesse, fighting groups that were being created by the Jeunesses Communistes.

The French Police arrested Danielle on 15 February 1942 while she was aiding Georges Politzer and his wife. On 24 January 1943 she was put on the Convoi des 31000 and transported to Auschwitz, where she was put to work as a dentist in the camp's infirmary. She helped other women from the Convoi by introducing them as doctors and nurses. To her death in Auschwitz on 9 May 1943, Danielle continued campaigning and organizing clandestine publications and events.

Marie-Claude Vogel Vaillant-Couturier (1912-1996)

Marie-Claude Vogel, daughter of magazine editor Lucien Vogel and fashion photographer Cosette de Brunhoff, was born in Paris on 3 November 1912.

She chose to be a photographic reporter, at the time when the trade was uniquely male, and earned herself the nickname of “the lady in Rolleiflex”.

In 1934 she joined the Communist Youth Movement of France. That year she married Paul Vaillant-Couturier, founder of the Republican Association of Ex-servicemen, a communist and chief editor of L'Humanité. She entered into it's photo service and later took responsibility for it after Paul's mysterious disappearance in 1937.

Attached to the magazine's Vu team, she went to Germany where she took part in an investigation into the rise of Nazism. It was two months after the accession of Adolf Hitler to power when she reported on the stereotypes of the concentration camps of Oranienburg and Dachau.

The Hitler-Stalin Pact in September 1939 resulted in prohibitions on L'Humanité and influenced her change of activities. She joined the Resistance and participated in the publication of leaflets such as l'Université Libre, Georges Politzer's pamphlet Sang et Or (Blood and Gold) and a clandestine edition of L'Humanité with Pierre Villon, who she married in 1949. She strengthened the connection between the Committee of National Front Intellectuals and the military resistance (OS, later the FTPF).

On 9 February 1942 Marie-Claude was arrested in a trap set by Marshal Pétain's police with many of her companions, all of whom were shot at Fort Mont-Valérien. She was interned until 15 February at the Dépôt de la Préfecture and La Santé Prison from March 20 to August, when she was transferred to Romainville, an internment camp under German authority. From there she was sent to an internment camp in Compiègne before deporting to Auschwitz-Birkenau via the Convoi des 31000 of 24 January 1943. Singular by its composition, this covoy inincluded 230 female Resistance members, communists and Gaullist wives of Resistance members. Only 49 of the 230 women would return from the camps after the war.

For 18 months, Marie-Claude was kept in Auschwitz where she witnessed the genocide of Jews and Gypsies and took part in the international clandestine resistance committee of the camp. In August 1944, she was transferred to the Ravensbrück where she was assigned to earthworks before being transferred to Revier (the camp infirmary) because of her knowledge of the German language.

Though Ravensbrück was liberated on 30 April 1945 by the Red Army, she didn't return to France until 25 June 1945. During that time, she devoted herself to the patients' repatriation. An article in Le Monde on 16 Jun 1943 read, “Each day, this magnificent Frenchwoman makes the rounds, uplifting courage, giving hope where it is often but illusion. The word 'holiness' comes to mind when one sees this grand sister of charity near these men and these women who are dying every day."

A leading member of the National Federation of Resistant Deportees and Internees and Patriots since its creation in 1945, Marie-Claude became its vice-president, then co-president in 1978. She was also one of the first presenters of l'Amicale d’Auschwitz. A witness at the Nuremberg Trials, she said later, “by telling of the sufferings of those who could not speak any more, I had the feeling that, through my voice, those who they had tortured and exterminated, accused their torturers.” However, she returned from the trials “shocked, worried,” “exasperated by the procedure,” dissatisfied, in particular denouncing the absence, on the dock, of the leaders of the firms Krupp, Siemens, IG Farben, firms which had largely taken part in the economic exploitation of the deportees. But in spite of these insufficiencies, she underlined later how much the definition crimes against humanity was “progress for the human conscience”.

In 1964 Paul Rassinier, a holocaust survivor and critic of the trial verdicts, accused her of having survived only by dispossessing her companions. Marie-Claude took action against these accusations and the lawsuit against Rassinier made justice of the charges. Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz declared to the bar of witnesses, “We entered the infirmary buildings not to hide, but because we needed courageous German speaking comrades. … When we gave back this ration of bread deducted from our own ration, this bulb, we knew that she would give it well to those who needed it most and without any political appreciation … I know few women as courageous as Marie-Claude, who always gave the feeling that her own life was nothing if she wasn't with the company of her comrades.”

The manager of the extreme-right magazine Rivarol and Rassinier were condemned. During December of the same year, she defended in front of the French National Assembly the concept of imprescriptibility of the crimes against humanity, thus opening the way with the ratification, by France in 1968, of the Convention of United Nations on the imprescriptibility of these crimes.

In 1987, she called all the civil parties to testify against Klaus Barbie. During the creation of the Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation. In 1990, she was unanimously designated President, then President d' Honneur until her death on 11 December 1996.