French policemen



The Vel' d'Hiv Roundup was a raid and mass arrest of Jews in Paris by the French police directed by German Nazi authorities, code named Opération Vent printanier

On 16 and 17 July 1942. The name "Vel' d'Hiv Roundup" is derived from the nickname of the Vélodrome d'Hiver ("Winter Velodrome"), a bicycle velodrome and stadium where most of the victims were temporarily confined.

 The roundup was one of several aimed at reducing the Jewish population in Occupied France. According to records of the Préfecture de Police, 13,152 victims were arrested
 including more than 4,000 children

 They were held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver in extremely crowded conditions, almost without water, food and sanitary facilities, as well as the Drancy, Pithiviers, and Beaune-la-Rolande internment camps then shipped by railway transports to Auschwitz for extermination.

 French President Jacques Chirac apologized in 1995 for the complicit role that French policemen and civil servants served in the raid.