The operation was intended to reshape the area of the Old Port, a popular neighborhood whose small, curved and winding streets were considered dangerous by the German authorities.

The Germans used for this an urbanist plan prepared by French architects who supported the Vichy ideology of "National Revolution" (Révolution nationale).

Mandated by the head of Vichy, Pierre Laval, Bousquet demanded on 14 January 1943 that the operation be postponed for a week to improve its organization and have police reinforcements.

For its part, the French administration decided on the grounds of internal security to carry out a vast police operation to rid Marseille of certain elements whose activities posed great risks to the population.

[5]The newspaper Le Petit Marseillais of 30 January 1943 added: Let us be clear that the operations for the evacuation of the Old Port were carried out exclusively by the French police and that they did not give rise to any incidents.

[7]A photo taken during this operation, and known since the beginning of the 1980s, shows head of French police René Bousquet posing with regional German police head Bernhard Griese [fr] of the SS, a high level officer of Totenkopf, regional prefect Marcel Lemoine, and Pierre Barraud, delegate prefect of Marseille.

[8] While 30,000 were expelled from their neighborhood, people from the criminal underworld, such as Paul Carbone, voluntarily surrendered at the beginning of the week, to be jailed while the "horrible show" took place.