Convoi 77: tracing the journeys of deportees and passing on their memory

Families and friends of deportees from convoy 77 created the Convoi 77 association to keep alive the memory of the 1,314 men, women and children deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on 31 July 1944, and to trace their individual stories. The association thus contributes to research, Holocaust education and the transmission of memory. It also aims to make the documents and information gathered on the deportees accessible to families, researchers and the general public.

Several hundred life stories have already been documented thanks to personal papers, photographs, testimonies and archival research. But many stories have yet to be written. The deportees on the convoy came from dozens of countries and, in many cases, entire families were murdered, leaving no descendants to pass on their history. For each deportee, however, the association has essential information — surname, first name, maiden name for married women, date and place of birth — which provides a starting point for tracing their story.

The “Convoi 77 European Project”

To advance this research while raising younger generations’ awareness of the history of the Holocaust, the association devised an educational project based on historical research.

Middle and high school students, from the equivalent of ninth grade through to final year, are invited, in the various countries involved, to investigate a deportee who was born or lived in their town or village. Guided by their teachers, they begin their research with town halls and archive services, then explore the places where the person grew up, studied or worked. They can also gather testimonies and search for photographs, personal documents or other traces of the person’s life.

Each class thus reconstructs, from the available sources, the biography of a deportee. The work carried out gradually enriches the association’s website and helps build a body of memory accessible to families, researchers and the general public.

Beyond historical research, the project allows young people to discover the Holocaust through the story of a person who lived in their own surroundings. It leads them to question the history of their town, the presence of Jewish communities before the war, and the persecution and deportations that took place there.

The first pilot projects were carried out in France, Germany and Belgium in 2016. In France, the “Convoi 77 European Project” was officially launched on 27 January 2017 at the Ministry of National Education.