The Velodrome d’Hiver Roundup is known as one of the greatest mass arrest of Jews on French soil. The mass arrest of the Jews involved over 13,000 Jews from France. The Velodrome d’Hiver Roundup happened on July 16 and17 in 1942. The Velodrome d’Hiver Roundup was only ⅓ of the 42,000 Jews taken from their homes and murdered. There were a few Jews that were spared. The ones spared and not taken from their homes were the Jewish French citizens, which were protected with a special card. (Laffitte)
The Velodrome h’hiver Roundup was starting to be put into place on July 2, 1942 when Rene Bousquet, who was in charge of the police, put men at the disposal for the purposes of arresting the Jewish foreigners. (Yad Vashem) The leader of France at the time, Pierre Laval, like the idea …show more content…
At the time she was a young girl only 11 years old at the time of the invasion. She was required to wear a Jewish star around so everyone knew that she was a Jew. On July 12, 1942 her life changed forever at three am. She was one of three Polish immigrant daughters. Her family was allowed one suitcase. The police made her and her family walk miles to a train depot. They were taken to a Paris sports stadium where they spend days without food water and bathrooms. In the stadium it smelt awful. A French gua rd convinced a French guard to let their family stay together. Cecil's mother became ill and the guards let her and her younger sister to go with their mother to the hospital. Little did they know that would be the last time that the girls and their mother would see their father and sister. The sisters and mother sent letters to their grandparents. They then convinced the guards to let them go from the hospital. The Grandparents arranged for them to go into hiding by a Catholic French woman. While they were in hiding they went days without food or water but they went on to survive and make it through the French Holocaust