July 16 and 17, 1942, the roundup of the Vel d'Hiv

In July 1945, the children of the house of Moissac were in a summer camp at Chambon-sur-Lignon.
Annette is the third person on the left.
Shoah Memorial/Coll. EEIF

On 16 July 1942 at 4 a.m., the largest roundup targeting Jews in France of the entire Second World War was launched by the Paris Police Prefecture, at the initiative of the Nazi authorities. More than 4,500 police officers were mobilized. Dozens of buses were required from the Compagnie du Métropolitain to transfer the arrested Jews. The persons concerned are German, Austrian, Polish, Czechoslovak, Russian and stateless Jews. 12,884 people were arrested at their homes in Paris and the nearby suburbs during the two days of 16 and 17 July, including a large number of women and children who were French. The arrests continued until 20 July, bringing the death toll to 13,152.

Single people and couples without children are sent to Drancy. The families, numbering 8,160 people including 4,115 children, are locked up at the Vélodrome d'hiver in the 15the arrondissement, parked on the bleachers in terrible conditions. Between 19 and 22 July, these families were transferred to the camps in Loiret, at Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande, then gradually deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. 3,000 children are brutally separated from their loved ones because Berlin has not yet authorized the deportation requested by Laval. The agreement was given on 13 August. 4,464 internees from Loiret, including 3,081 children, were then transported to Drancy and, for the largest number, immediately deported and murdered.

Of these tragic events, there is only one photograph identified by Serge Klarsfeld in 1990, showing buses parked in front of the Vel d'Hiv.

Video of Annette’s testimony, 10 years old on July 16, 1942

In her testimony, she evokes the conditions of internment at Vel d'hiv, at Pithiviers and then at Drancy. 

Annette Wainstein Landauer was born on 14 September 1931. She lives with her father Nuchim Wainstein, her mother Ruchla, and her brother Sirins in Paris on the 18th.e arrondissement. On July 16, 1942, she was arrested with her father and brother. Her mother Ruchla Corenvit was not arrested, but had the same name. They were taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver and then into barracks at the Pithiviers camp. First transferred alone to Drancy, she is joined by her father and brother. In her testimony, she evokes the conditions of internment at Vel d'hiv, at Pithiviers and then at Drancy. His mother obtained the release of the whole family thanks to their Romanian nationality, which at that time became part of the protected nationalities. Two years of hiding followed. His mother, who had not been taken prisoner at the time of the Vel’ raid on HIV, was unfortunately arrested and deported in June 1944 by convoy 76 on 30/06/1944.

Annette learns in September 1944 that her mother will not return. Her father, unable to take care of her, sent her to Moissac, the children’s home of Eclaireurs Israélites de France, where she met her brother until August 1946.

Annette Landauer died in March 2021.