Convoi des 31000

In 1941 Otto von Stülpnagel introduced the Night and Fog directive (Nacht und Nebel) which provided for deporting "enemies of the Reich" to the eastern territories in order to isolate them from the rest of the world, forbidding them to make any communications with their families. For the Germans, the directive was designed to alarm the families involved and dissuade them from continuing their relatives' work in the Resistance. This can be seen in a letter from Heinrich Himmler to members of the Gestapo: "After careful consideration, the will of the Führer is to modify the measures against those who are guilty of crimes against the Reich or against the German forces in the occupied territories. Our Führer believes that a prison sentence or hard labour for life sends a message of weakness. The only possible deterrent is either the death penalty or something that will leave the family and the rest of the population in doubt as to the fate of the criminal. Deportation to Germany will fulfil this purpose." Over the months, this practice was used against French people who were suspected of espionage, treason, aiding enemies of the Reich or illegal possession of weaponsall accusations which were liable for the death penalty. == Journey ==

Detention Those waiting to be deported were imprisoned at Fort Romainville, a former prison which was commandeered by Nazi forces in 1940 for use as a transit camp. One of the first women in the convoy to arrive at the camp was Maria Alonso, a Spaniard, who was arrested for providing a mimeograph machine to resistance fighters. They included Madeleine Doiret, Jacqueline Quatremaire, Lucienne Thevenin, Jeanne Serre and Vittoria Daubeuf. On 24 August, the women caught during the Politzer-Pican-Dallidet raid in Paris arrived, including Madeleine Dissoubray, Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, Danielle Casanova, Charlotte Delbo and Madeleine Passot, as well as a young girl of sixteen, Rosa Floch, arrested for having written “Vive les Anglais” on the wall of her school. The front part of the train had been occupied by 1,446 men since the day before. By 10 April 1943, there were only 70 left. Post-war Several women from the convoy testified against those who had arrested and abused them. Betty Langlois testified during the trial of Fernand David, who had been Head of the Special Brigades in Paris, and who sent several members of the convoy to be deported. He was sentenced to be shot. Adelaide Hautval was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1985 for trying to save her patients in the camps where she was held. Annette Epaud also received the title of Righteous Among the Nations, posthumously in 1997, for having given water to the women dying in Block 25 of Auschwitz, including many Jews, an act which led to her being sent to the gas chamber a few days later. Many survivors suffered consequences to their health after their years of detention. Problems included: arthritis, flare-ups of typhus, chronic exhaustion and depression. == Women in the convoy ==

The Convoi des 31000 is unusual in that of the 230 women who were deported, most of them were arrested for acts of Resistance. It was the only convoy carrying women in the Resistance under the Nacht und Nebel operations. Of the 230 women, 85% of them were members of the Resistance; 199 women were also Communist Party members. The husbands of 36 out of the 230 women were killed by the Nazis, either shot or murdered during detention. Ninety-nine of the women had children, 167 in all, the youngest of whom was barely a few months old when their mother was deported. Of the 230 women in the convoy, none of the 54 who were over 44 years old survived. Of the 21 aged between 40 and 44, six survived. Of the 38 between 35 and 40, there were eight survivors. There were 17 survivors of those between 25 and 35 while there were 18 survivors of those 50 between 17 and 25. One hundred and six women came from Île-de-France; 85 came from towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants, 32 from towns or villages of less than 10,000, and for six of them, the information is unknown. Nine of those in this convoy were not French. Regarding their professionals, there were four chemists (including Marie-Élise Nordmann-Cohen), three doctors (Maï Politzer, midwife; Danielle Casanova, dentist; and Adélaïde Hautval, psychiatrist), a teacher, 21 seamstresses, one singer and some students. == Gallery ==

Survivors File:Louise Magadur - Photo anthropométrique.png|Louise Magadur File:Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier.jpg|Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier File:Hélène Langevin 1945.jpg|Hélène Solomon-Langevin Victims File:Laure Gatet 1940.jpg|Laure Gatet File:Vittoria Nenni.jpg|Vittoria Nenni File:Danielle Casanova (1909-1943).jpg|Danielle Casanova == Commemoration ==

In September 1943, when information on the fate of French women in the convoy began to circulate in resistance circles, Louis Aragon wrote a poem about them, which began: "Je vous salue, Maries des France aux cent visages" [Translation: "I salute you, Maries of France with a hundred faces"]. Soon after her return, Charlotte Delbo wrote her Auschwitz manuscript but did not submit it to an editor until 20 years later. The first volume came out in 1965. The same year, she published Le Convoi du 24 janvier, which included the biographies of the 230 women in the convoy. On 25 January 2003, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the convoy, a plaque was affixed to the wall of Fort Romainville. In 2008, the biographer Caroline Moorehead decided to contact the survivors of the convoy to write their story. There were seven still living at the time. She met Betty Langlois, Cécile Charua, Madeleine Dissoubray and Poupette Alizon, whose sister died in the camps. In 2013, an amateur theatre festival paid tribute to the Convoi des 31000 with a play by Gérard Thévenin. In 2019, a play called Convoy 31000 was directed by Tina Taylor at the Lunatico Theater in Berkeley, California. A documentary on the history of the convoy was broadcast in January 2019 on the French channel Toute l'Histoire. Each year, in Romainville, the date of the convoy's departure is marked with a wreath-laying ceremony. == See also ==