As of the end June 1940, horseshoe buildings of the "Cité de la Muette", in DRANCY, neither finished, nor inhabited, were transformed into camp for French war prisoners and then into internment camp for British civil internees and again, into Yugoslav and Greek war prisoners.

August 20, 1941, it became the sadly famous INTERNMENT CAMP AT DRANCY from where nearly 100,000 Jews were deported.

It functioned under the double supervision of the Police Prefecture of Paris and the German authority. The commander of DRANCY is SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Theodor DANNECKER then, as from July 1942, his former assistant Heinz RÔTHKE (1912-1966), both in charge of the deportation of the Jews of France. In the current of 1943, Alois BRUNNER will take the direction of it.

Until this time, the camp comprises a true Jewish administration entrusted to an interned camp chief which organizes the operation.

From 1941, the internees, at the edge of the famine, obtain the authorization to receive parcels of food via the U.G.I.F.

The CAMP OF DRANCY was released on August 22, 1944. Were there 1,386 internees including 64 children.