Miriam Weinstein (née Strul) was arrested by French police — not German soldiers — on February 21, 1943, on the street in Paris because she was speaking Yiddish and not wearing the yellow star.
She was held at the Drancy transit camp for three days (building 4, entrance 15).
On her first night in Drancy, Miriam threw her gold watch over the camp wall, along with a note on which she had written the names of her family members and their address in Paris. A Frenchman whose name is unknown found the watch and the note, and passed the word to her husband, Bernard. This was how Hanna and her father learned that Miriam had been captured and taken to Drancy. Years later, when Hanna was 17, her father gave her that gold watch — her mother's watch — as a gift.
On March 2, 1943, she was deported on Convoy 49 to Auschwitz, where she was murdered on March 7, 1943, aged 38 years, 9 months, and 11 days.
This information is confirmed by documents from the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris.
Historical documents
Official Drancy camp mutation log entry no. 35, dated February 21, 1943, confirming that Miriam Weinstein was arrested by the French police and not by the Nazis.
Identity certificate of Miriam Weinstein.
Population registry entry for Miriam Weinstein (née Strul) from the police prefecture of Orange.
Population registration certificate of Miriam Weinstein from May 1942 — a document created following the Nazi demand to document all (Jewish) people in France.
Fichier Juif — a Jewish file of the French Prefecture. This is a dark document: a mandatory registration of Jews imposed by the Nazis on occupied France. Every Jew was required to register with the French police, and this registration enabled the authorities to locate Jews and deport them. The most painful detail: in the "Services de Guerre" (War Services) field, it says "Drancy 2.3.43" — meaning her deportation to Drancy on March 2, 1943 was recorded in the file itself as "war service." The Nazis and the French documented the deportation in cold bureaucratic form. Historical significance: this document is direct evidence of the collaboration of the French police with the Nazis. Miriam's registration in this file — including her address, her name, and her daughter Annette's name — is what enabled the authorities to locate her and finally arrest her on the street on February 21, 1943.
This is Miriam's official deportation card from the Drancy camp — the most direct document recording her deportation to her death. The meaning of each field: "J.F." at the top of the card — Juif/Juive — Jewish woman. This marking sealed her fate. "X" over her name — a mark designating those slated for immediate deportation. "S.P." — Sans Patrie, stateless. Miriam was neither a French citizen nor a recognized Romanian citizen. She was "without any protection" — no state would demand her return. "Z.O. / Z.N.O." — Zone Occupée / Zone Non-Occupée. The crossing between the two occupation zones — apparently indicating she was arrested in Paris (Zone Occupée). "2.3.43" — this is the final date. On March 2, 1943, Miriam was put on the train from Drancy to Auschwitz — Transport no. 49. She never returned.
Official confirmation from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum of the fate of Miriam Weinstein — deported on Convoy 49 from Drancy to Auschwitz, March 2, 1943. The document was received in 1998.