The police, the German Army, no longer dared to shoot their hostages, but neither of the two had any mercy on them. More and more, were transported in ever increasing numbers from 1943 to German concentration camps, where all means were used to annihilate them—from exhausting labor to the gas chambers.
Censuses taken at various times in France enable us to ascertain that there were more than 250,000 French deportees, of which only 35,000 returned. Document Number F-497, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-339, indicates that out of 600,000 arrests which the Germans made in France, 350,000 were carried out with a view to internment in France or in Germany:
“Total number deported, 250,000; number of deportees returned, 35,000.”
On the following page are a few names of deported French personages.
“Prefects: M. Bussières, M. Bonnefoy, disappeared in the Cap Arcona, Generals: de Lestraing, executed at Dachau; Job, executed at Auschwitz; Frère, died at Struthof; Bardi de Fourtou died at Neuengamme; Colonel Roger Masse died at Auschwitz.
“High officials: Marquis of Moustier, died at Neuengamme; Bouloche, Inspector General of Roads and Bridges died at Buchenwald; his wife died at Ravensbrück, one of his sons died during deportation, his other son alone returned from Flossenbürg; Jean Devèze, engineer of roads and bridges, disappeared at Nordhausen; Pierre Block, engineer of roads and bridges, died at Auschwitz; Mme. Getting, founder of the social service in France, disappeared at Auschwitz.
“Among university professors, names well-known in France, such as: Henri Maspéro, Professor at the College de France, died at Buchenwald; Georges Bruhat, Director of the École Normale Supérieure, died at Oranienburg; Professor Vieille died at Buchenwald. . . .”
It is impossible to name each of the intellectuals exterminated by German fury. Among the doctors we must, however, mention the disappearance of the Director of the Rothschild Hospital and of Professor Florence, both murdered, one at Auschwitz, the other at Neuengamme.