The Memorial to the last Deportation convoy in Seine-et-Marne

The Memorial was unveiled on 23 June 2012, at Nanteuil-Saâcy station, in the presence of representatives of the State, the organising committee, the Fédération nationale des associations de déportés et internés de la Résistance, and SNCF.

The last convoy

This site of memory pays tribute to the 2,400 Resistance members held in the prisons of Fresnes and Romainville, deported by the SS on 15 August 1944.

Having left the Pantin freight station the following morning, the train was forced to stop at Nanteuil, after British aircraft destroyed the bridge crossing the Marne. Under SS guard, the prisoners then walked several kilometres to reach another train, stationed just outside Saâcy station, on the other side of the Marne.

A week later, the men arrived at the Buchenwald concentration camp and the women at Ravensbrück. Most of the men were then transferred to the camps of Dora, Ellrich and Nordhausen, where they endured particularly inhumane conditions.

This convoy also included 158 Allied airmen, whose planes had been shot down over France. After a stop at Buchenwald, they were transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp.

A wagon restored by SNCF

SNCF handed over to the town council a wagon intended to house this memorial. It was renovated at SNCF’s maintenance workshops in Béziers, in the Hérault département, before being brought to Nanteuil-Saâcy station by railway workers.