Note: Norah Friede learned this song (in French) about the Drancy deportation camp from French prisoners in Dachau in 1944. Drancy was an infamous temporary prison camp in the city of Drancy, north of Paris. Like many other detention centres throughout France, it was created by the Vichy government of Philippe Pétain in 1941 and was under the control of the French police until July 1, 1943 when Nazi Germany took control as they geared up for the mass exterminations. The camp at Drancy was in a multi-storey complex designed to hold 700 people, but at its peak in it held more than 7,000. Documentation testifies to the brutality of the French guards in Drancy and the cruel conditions imposed on the people including small children who,were immediately separated from their parents upon their arrival. Many French Jewish intellectuals and artists were held in Drancy, including Max Jacob, philosopher Tristan Bernard and the choreographer René Blum.