Samuel Bliman, Witness to the Vél d'Hiv Roundup • FRANCE 24 English

Over two days in the summer of 1942, French police carried out Western Europe’s largest wartime roundup of Jews, acting on orders from occupying German forces and their French allies in the Vichy Regime.

On July 16 and 17 of that year, a total of 12,884 Jews – men, women and children – were snatched from their homes in Paris and in neighbouring suburbs. Some were taken directly to an internment camp in Drancy, northeast of the capital. The rest were crammed into the Vélodrome d’Hiver, a stadium located on the banks of the Seine in the 15th arrondissement (district) of Paris, which would give its name to this sinister chapter in French history.

To mark the 80th anniversary of this tragic event, FRANCE 24 has gathered the eyewitness accounts of witnesses of the Vél d’Hiv roundup. Samuel Bliman was 12 years old at the time. He recalls the shock and horror of those days, and the extraordinary circumstances that allowed him to avoid deportation to Nazi death camps. He presents a cherished object, invested with memories of his childhood and loved ones.
#holocaustsurvivor #nazim #memory

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