oeuvre de Jo marti
On the 6th of July 1942, a train of 1175 french men leaves France. 2 days later, it stops in the middle of nowhere. There is no station, no name, the men don’t know where they are, they don’t know they have just arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. They will soon become the 45000.
6 months later, on the the 24th of january 1943, another train leaves France, with 230 women.
This is the story of those 2 trains, those 2 groups of women and men, members of the resistance, arrested, deported.
I will tell you the story of some of those women and men, one chapter, one person at the time. They were political prisoners, hostages, communists, jewish, muslims, criminals, handicapped, they all resisted in one way or another.
3 years ago, I was given a book by Claudine Cardon Hamet by my mother, I was told that one member of my family was inside one of those trains. I didn’t know, and now I want to share this story, as well as 70 others.
I will tell you about their arrest, the french camps, their travel east, the shock, the numbers, the survival, the bonding, the resistance, the return, the losses.
They are the 31000 and the 45000 and this is some of their stories.
