The Vél d'Hiv Raid: The French Police at the Service of the Gestapo

Beginning in the early morning hours of July 16, 1942, and lasting for two days, the French police went beyond Nazi ordinances and took it upon themselves to arrest and imprison more than 13,000 Jews at a Paris sporting arena, the Vélodrome d'Hiver.

For most of the Jews, this detention without water, food, or sleep was the first horrific step toward death in the concentration camps. Using recently opened police files, Maurice Rajsfus details the internal organization of the police, showing...