Drancy, camp de concentration

Using archival material and testimonies of survivors, describes the functioning of Drancy. Contends that it was not only a transit camp, but a well-set-up concentration camp. Underlines the role and activities of the French authorities (gendarmerie, police, and the Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives) responsible (along with the Nazis) for repressions, roundups, and deportations. Describes the administration of Alois Brunner, and the role and activities of a Jewish commander of the camp chosen by Brunner, Robert Felix Blum, himself deported to Auschwitz in November 1943. Mentions the collaboration of the UGIF with camp authorities, but believes that the organization's goal was to save French Jews. States that the UGIF may have had information about the real purpose of the deportations which it kept secret.