April 2015 – European project Convoi 77, initiated by Georges Mayer, was officially launched in Israel on the first of April 2015 in the presence of 19 Ambassadors and foreign Embassy representatives.
It will make possible to gather information about the deportees of the convoy, by sending students from the 37 countries the deportees were from on their traces.
On July 31th 1944, the convoy 77, the last large convoy of deportees left from Drancy to Auschwitz, carrying away 1321 persons, among them more than 300 children.
The research work of the Mémorial de la Shoah, of Serge Klarsfeld and of the association Familles et amis des déportés du Convoi 77 made it possible to find information (photos, testimonies, personal documents…) for 400 of these 1321 deportees.
Concerning the others 900, only a few basic data are available : last and first names, date and place of birth.
No descendants could be found, there aren’t any direct means to trace their life history.
The European project Convoi 77 means to send students to look for archives and testimonies in the countries the deportees came from. Younger generations actively involved in memory work, by tracing these lost deportees will help to reconstruct their life story.
The Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah supported the project preparation.