Bobigny-Gare is the railway departure point named for Convoy 49, connecting a specific place near Drancy to the deportation of 1,000 Jews in March 1943. The book gives the station a concise but consequential role: it marks where the convoy’s journey began, while the names and fates of those aboard make that departure more than an administrative detail.

Location and Recorded Role

Bobigny-Gare is described as being near Drancy. The account identifies it as the point from which Convoy 49 set off on March 2, 1943. It provides no further description of the station’s physical appearance or operation; its significance in the narrative rests on this recorded departure and the human cargo attached to it.

Convoy 49

The train left Bobigny-Gare carrying 1,000 Jews. The narrative also describes Convoy 49 as having transported people from many circumstances and walks of life: former tailors and their relatives, customers and suppliers, religious ministers, and people who were elderly, sick, invalid, or otherwise vulnerable. The list gives the convoy a human and social breadth that the bureaucratic designation suppresses: those sent away were not an anonymous mass but people embedded in families, work, and community.

After leaving Bobigny-Gare, the convoy arrived at its final destination on the morning of March 6. The account’s movement from a precise departure date and place to the destination’s stark description compresses the journey into a few lines, but the four-day interval fixes the deportation in historical time.

People Named Among the Deportees

Zacharie Grumberg, the author’s father, was among the 1,000 Jews aboard Convoy 49. His inclusion makes Bobigny-Gare part of the family history documented in the book, not only a point on the convoy’s route. The station’s brief mention thus opens onto a particular lineage and the author’s relation to those deported.

Sylvia Menkès was also aboard. Born on March 4, 1942, she was killed on March 4, 1943, the anniversary of her birth. Her dates bring an individual life into sharp focus within the convoy’s larger count: the account records both the exact day she was born and the date of her death, one year later, as the train’s departure and arrival frame the final journey.