While the Allies landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944 and the fighting for the liberation of French territory raged, Aloïs Brunner, the Nazi commander of the Drancy camp continued the "hunt for Jews". About a thousand internees arrived at the Drancy camp in June, another thousand in July, including 250 children rounded up between 21 and 25 July 1944 in the UGIF children’s homes in the Paris region. On 31 July, 17 days before the liberation of the Drancy camp, 1,300 internees including 330 children were deported to Auschwitz. There is an atmosphere of terror in the camp. There are signs that the Nazis are about to leave. The latter gave the order to destroy the archives of the camp, but internees managed to save the nominative file of the Drancy camp. Despite Brunner’s efforts to deport the remaining 1,000 internees, the railway strike declared by the Resistance paralyzed the rail network. Finally, Brunner obtained the provision of three wagons with which he was able to leave the camp on 17 August 1944, bound for the Buchenwald camp, also deporting 51 internees, mainly resistance fighters. At least 21 deportees managed to escape during the transport of this convoy.
After several hours of uncertainty, the internees realize that the Nazis have definitely left the camp and that for them the nightmare has stopped.
The Drancy camp was then handed over to those who represented the Resistance under the authority of Raoul Nordling, consul general of Sweden. The internees left the camp in a few days.
