Following the German occupation of France during WWII, a large complex originally planned as a large public housing project, but was used instead as police barracks, was converted to use as a major detention center primarily for Jews, but also for homosexuals and other "undesirables" who were seized by Nazi orders pending shipment to Auschwitz or other Nazi extermination camps.
Like many other detention centers throughout France, Drancy was created by the Vichy government of Philippe Petain in 1941 and was under the control of French police until July 3, 1943 when Nazi Germany took over day to day control as part of the major stepping up of all facilities for mass exterminations. The camp was opened after a round up of Jews in Paris in Aug. 1941, in which 4,000 Jews were arrested. The French police carried out additional round ups of Jews throughout the war.
The camp at Drancy was in a multi-story complex designed to hold 7,000 people, but at its peak it held many more than 7,000. There is documented evidence and testimony recounting the brutality of the French guards in Drancy and the brutal conditions imposed upon the people, including small children who upon their arrival were immediately separated from their parents. It is at Drancy that SS First Lieutenant Klaus Barbie transported Jewish children that he captured in a raid of a children's home, before deporting them to Auschwitz, where they were all killed. In Dec. of 1941 40 prisoners from Drancy were executed in retaliation for a French attack on German police officers.
Many French intellectuals and artists were held at Drancy, including Max Jacob, philosopher Tristan Bernard and the choreographer Rene Blum.
