Vél d'Hiv Roundup — France Deports Jews to Auschwitz

French police (not German forces) arrest 13,152 Jews in Paris including 4,115 children, holding them for days in the Vélodrome d'Hiver sports arena before deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Fewer than 100 survive. The operation demonstrates the active role of the Vichy state in the Holocaust. President Chirac's 1995 speech is the first official French acknowledgment of state responsibility for the deportations.