Vel d'Hiv

by **carter** Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:05 am

Has anyone heard of this? It came to my attention from a book called Sara's Key. The date was July 16, 1942 when the French police, acting on the orders of the Gestapo, rounded up 13,000 (over 5,000 kids) Jews in the early morning, shipping them to the Veldrome d'Hiver to await shipment to Drancy and then on to Aushwitz. 850 of the 40,000 rounded up by the French police came back alive after 1945.

I can't get over the fact that it was the French police. This was one of the worst things i'd ever read.

To top it all off, the Gestapo asked for all French or alien Jews over the age of 55. The Police one'upped them and rounded up kids as well (most between the ages of 3 and 13), breaking up the families in the Vel d'Hiv with the butts of their rifles and buckets of cold water.

Here's a bit of info from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafle_d...ice_complicity

I am curious to know if i am the only uniformed human on this topic.