Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv

The Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv (the "great round-up" or "great raid" of the Vel'd'Hiv, from the French abbreviation for Vélodrome d'hiver, or winter velodrome) is the name of the July 16, 1942 raid during the Vichy regime, when the French police forces arrested 12,884 Jews at the request of the Gestapo. Of the total, 4,051 were children — which the Gestapo had not asked for — 5,082 women and 3,031 men. They were all sent to Drancy deportation camp, guarded by French police, before being sent to concentration camps. This event proved the eagerness of Pétain's regime to collaborate with Nazi Germany in carrying out the Holocaust. The total of 12,884 represents more than a quarter of the 42,000 French Jews sent to Auschwitz in 1942, of whom only 811 would return after the end of the war. On July 16, 1995, French president Jacques Chirac officially recognized the responsibility of the French police in this raid.

Film documentaries

 * William Karel, 1992. La Rafle du Vel-d'Hiv, La Marche du siècle, France 3.