From 1942 until the Liberation, approximately 80 convoys transported more than 140,000 people from France to the death camps, including 75,000 Jews, among them 11,400 children. One of the last trains left Toulouse on July 3, 1944, bound for the Dachau camp in Germany. It took 57 days—instead of three—to reach its destination. Constantly disappearing and reappearing, it came to be known as the “ghost train.”
As the Allies landed in Normandy and France was being liberated, a freight train left the Toulouse train station on July 3, 1944. Upon its departure, it carried 403 prisoners from the Vernet internment camp—Spanish Republican soldiers, members of the International Brigades, anti-fascists, and “undesirable” foreigners—as well as 150 prisoners from the Saint-Michel detention center in Toulouse. Among the latter were members of the 35th Brigade of the FTP-M.O.I., including Jacob Insel, who had replaced Marcel Langer as the Brigade’s commander.
Between Allied bombings and acts of sabotage by the Resistance, there are many obstacles. The convoy heads toward Bordeaux, then toward Angoulême, and returns to Bordeaux.
150 prisoners from Fort du Hâ boarded the train there, which passed through Toulouse on its way back up to Germany via the Rhône Valley. The prisoners had to walk 17 kilometers from the Roquemaure train station to the Sorgues station in sweltering heat.
Civilians brought them food and water; railroad workers and members of the Resistance helped some of them escape.
Upon arriving in Pierrelatte, the train came under heavy fire from the Allies, who were unaware that deportees were on board. The dead and wounded were unloaded at the Montélimar train station, where a small monument has been erected in their memory.
The journey continued, under conditions that remained appalling, until they reached the Dachau camp on August 28, 1944, after about two months of wandering.
On this “ghost train,” which keeps appearing and disappearing, 536 of the 703 prisoners are still on board. Many of them will die in Dachau, succumbing to typhus.
Reference:
Guy Scarpetta, writer; Jorge Amat, director; 2016; *The Resistance Fighters of the Ghost Train*. Video documentary.
