Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (French: Rafle du Velodrome d'Hiver, commonly called the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv: "Vel' d'Hiv Police Roundup / Raid," from the nickname for the Velodrome d'Hiver ("Winter Velodrome" bicycling racetrack and stadium), was a Nazi decreed raid and mass arrest in Paris by the French police on 16 and 17 July 1942, code named Operation Vent printanier ("Operation Spring Breeze"). The roundup was one of several aimed at reducing the Jewish population in occupied France. According to records of the Prefecture de Police, 13,152 victims were arrested and held at the Velodrome d'Hiver and the Drancy internment camp nearby, then shipped by railway transports to Auschwitz for extermination. French President Jacques Chirac apologized in 1995 for the complicit role that French policemen and civil servants served in the raid.