letter, From: Basch, André To: Relavé, Jean in Saint-Étienne - [field_prison_camp-formatted] February 23, 1943

Very beautiful and moving letter. According to the Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France by Klarsfeld, André Basch was part of convoy no.50 which left Drancy on March 4, 1943 for the extermination camp of Majdanek. A note in the margin of the letter states that Basch was arrested on February 20th. According to Klarsfeld, there were two departures from Gurs for Drancy : one on February 26 and the other during the night of March 2-3. A total of 888 men from 16 to 65 years of age and from Gurs formed that convoy no.50. Basch, born on November 16, 1890, was 52 and probably went directly to the gas chamber on arrival at Majdanek. Gurs Opened in April 1939, Gurs will become one of the most important internment camps of the nonoccupied zone. It was first populated by Spanish refugees then by Jews, Communists and other persons judged undesirable by the German authorities. The camp was closed by mid-1943. There were some convoys from Gurs to Auschwitz.