Taking Paris by Martin Dugard

Author:Martin Dugard [Dugard, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

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Finding the Jews is easy. Like all law-abiding citizens of Paris, families have done as they are told, and for the Jewish population this means registering their names and addresses with the local police. This information was placed in a special file maintained by the Commissariat General for Jewish Affairs in the 2nd arrondissement. The fichier Tulard—the Tulard File, named for the bureaucrat supervising each and every detail—was alphabetized and grouped according to nationality, profession, and home address. Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, the newly appointed French collaborator in charge of the commissariat, then handed the registry over to the local Gestapo.

Such a high level of detail allows SS-captain Theodor Dannecker, a specialist in the Nazi answer to the Jewish question, to plan the roundup with precision. He is a man so loathsome that not even the Nazis trust him. This roundup will be the twenty-nine-year-old Dannecker’s last grand act before being recalled to Berlin for looting. Local police and the French national train service, known as Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français—or just SNCF—are informed of their obligations.* Both comply as ordered. The arrests are such a high priority that Adolf Eichmann, the SS officer coordinating the deportation of Jews to death camps as part of the Final Solution, attends a July 10 planning meeting in Paris. The French make the minor suggestion of requesting that the raids not take place until after July 14, the national celebration of Bastille Day, a date in Paris history when citizens rose up in rebellion against an oppressive state. Comparisons with the German occupation being obvious, the Nazis agree to postpone the roundup rather than incite another great uprising.

The size and sweep of the arrests makes Adolf Hitler proud enough to shout it to the world. The United Press newspaper syndicate, relying on information provided by Berlin radio, reports that “all alien Jews living in Paris” have been arrested. The complete figure is 12,884. Women number 5,802 and children 4,051.

“All will be deported to the East,” the Berlin report concludes with ominous self-congratulation.

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