Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L13979, Frankreich, Ankleben von Aufrufen durch PK

Numerous

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s and

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s were located in France before, during and after World War II. Beside the camps created during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to intern German, Austrian and Ottoman

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

prisoners, the Third Republic (1871–1940) opened various internment camps for the Spanish refugees fleeing the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

(1936–1939). Following the prohibition of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

(PCF) by the government of

Édouard Daladier Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II. Daladier was born in Carpe ...

, they were used to detain communist

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s. The Third Republic also interned German

anti-Nazi Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

s (mostly members of the Communist Party of Germany, KPD). Then, after the 10 July 1940 vote of

full powers A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...

to Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...

and the proclamation of the '' État français'' (

Vichy regime Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

), these camps were used to intern

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

Gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

, and various political prisoners ( anti-fascists from all countries). Vichy opened up so many camps that it became a full economic sector, to the extent that historian

Maurice Rajsfus Maurice Rajsfus (9 April 1928 – 13 June 2020) was a French writer, journalist, historian and anti-establishment militant. He was the author of numerous books addressing themes such as the Jewish genocide in France, the police, and attacks on ci ...

writes: "The quick opening of new camps created jobs, and the Gendarmerie never ceased to hire during this period." In any case, most of these camps were closed definitively after the

liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany inv ...

at the end of World War II. Some were however used during the Algerian War (1954–1962). Several of these were then used to intern ''

harki ''Harki'' (adjective from the Arabic ''harka'', standard Arabic ''haraka'' حركة, "war party" or "movement", i.e., a group of volunteers, especially soldiers) is the generic term for native Muslim Algerian who served as auxiliaries in the F ...

s'' (Algerians who had fought on the French side) after the 19 March 1962

Évian Accords The Évian Accords were a set of peace treaties signed on 18 March 1962 in Évian-les-Bains, France, by France and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, the government-in-exile of FLN (), which sought Algeria's independence ...

. Finally, the

Camp de Rivesaltes The Camp de Rivesaltes, also known as Camp Joffre, was an internment and transit camp in the commune of Rivesaltes in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales of the French Southern Zone during World War Two. Between August 11 and October 20, 1 ...

in the Pyrénées-Orientales and the camp of

Bourg-Lastic Bourg-Lastic (; oc, Lo Borg) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. Geography The Chavanon forms the commune's eastern border. Population See also *Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department T ...

in the

Puy de Dôme Puy de Dôme (, ; oc, label=Auvergnat, Puèi Domat or ) is a lava dome and one of the youngest volcanoes in the region of Massif Central in central France. This chain of volcanoes including numerous cinder cones, lava domes and maars is ...

were also used to intern

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

refugees from

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

in the 1980s.

Nineteenth century onward

First World War and later

Camp de concentration de Crest - Crest - Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine - APZ0001117

The first internment camps were opened during the First World War (1914–1918) to detain civilian prisoners (mainly German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman). These prisoners were detained in Pontmain in the department of

Mayenne Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ill ...

, Fort-Barreaux in Isère, in the military camp of

Graveson Graveson (; oc, Graveson) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Population See also * Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône department The following is a list of the 119 communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône de ...

(

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...

), in Frigolet

near Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône), Noirlac (Abbey) (Cher (department), Cher), and Ajain(Creuse). Other internment camps were used for Armenians in the 1920s-1930s (Mirabeau camp, Victor Hugo camp and Oddo Camp in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

); Gypsies after the 1912 Act on nomadism (for instance in the

Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) is a historical building at Arc-et-Senans in the department of Doubs, Eastern France. It is next to the Forest of Chaux and 29.2 kilometres (18.1 miles) to the southwest of Besançon. The architect was Claude- ...

, but also in iron mines in the Manche and other disaffected industrial centers in

, in the

Manche Manche (, ) is a coastal French département in Normandy, on the English Channel, which is known as ''La Manche'', literally "the sleeve", in French. It had a population of 495,045 in 2019.Loire-Atlantique, in the

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

, in the Maine-et-Loire, etc.).

Spanish Civil War

The most infamous internment camps before World War II were used to intern the Spanish Republican refugees and military personnel during the

. In 2 weeks in January and February 1939 around 500,000 men, women and children crossed the border.Franco refugees still haunted by the past: ‘We were cold, hungry and scared’

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, 2019 These were interned mostly in camps in the Roussillon Province, such as the Camp de concentration d'Argelès-sur-Mer although internment camps for defeated Spanish Republicans were established in all of French territory, even in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, in the north-west of France. These camps were located in: *

Agde Agde (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in Southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. Location Agde is located on the Hérault river, from the Mediterranean Sea, and from Paris. The Canal du Midi conne ...

in the

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Montpellier) *

Argelès-sur-Mer Argelès-sur-Mer (, literally ''Argelès on Sea''; ca, Argelers de la Marenda or ; oc, Argelers de Mar), commonly known as Argelès, is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the administrative region of Occitania, France. It i ...

, between Perpignan and the border * Camp Gurs in the

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...

, which received Spanish refugees following the defeat of the Spanish Republic. These were distinguished by the French state into Brigadists, '' gudaris'' ( Basque nationalists) who had escaped from the siege of Santander, pilots, and farmers. The latter had trades that were in low demand, and the French government, in agreement with the Francoist government, incited them to return to Spain. The great majority did so and were turned over to the Francoist authorities in Irún. From there they were transferred to the

Miranda de Ebro Miranda de Ebro (Spanish: iˈɾan̪da ðe ˈeβɾo is a city on the Ebro river in the province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is located in the north-eastern part of the province, on the border with the prov ...

camp for purification according to the Law of Political Responsibilities. * Camp Vernet near

Pamiers Pamiers (; oc, Pàmias ) is a commune and largest city in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the most populous commune in the Ariège department, although i ...

, in the Ariège. * Moisdon-la-Rivière and Juigné-des-Moutiers in Loire-Atlantique department (Brittany). * The

, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales. The Jewish detainees were sent to

Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban commu ...

, near Paris, the Gypsies to Saliers and the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both in ...

to camp Gurs. To these camps must be added the camps for the German prisoners in 1939 (sometimes overlapping with those above), and those of the Colonial Empire, not well known in Europe. Furthermore, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who had been named Consul in Paris for Immigration, organized the transportation to Chile of 2,200 Spanish refugees who had been detained in the camps on board the ''

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

'', which departed on 2 August 1939, and arrived in

Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...

at the beginning of September 1939. After 1940 when the Nazi Germany divided France in occupied and free zone, the camps were also used to imprison Jews, Gypsies, and sometimes gays, and the original prisoners were used as forced labor to make the camps larger.

During World War II and the Vichy regime

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-720-0318-36, Frankreich, Milizionär bewacht Widerstandskämpfer

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10921, Frankreich, Paris, Registrierung verhafteter Juden

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10922, Frankreich, Paris, festgenommene Juden

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10813, Frankreich, Paris, Festnahme von Juden

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10816, Frankreich, Paris, Judenverfolgung

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10817, Frankreich, Paris, verhaftete Juden

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10919, Frankreich, Internierungslager Drancy

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B10920, Frankreich, Paris, festgenommene Juden im Lager

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S69238, Frankreich, Internierungslager Pithiviers

As early as 1939, the existing camps were indiscriminately filled with German

s (

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, German Jews, etc. Following the 1940 defeat, and the 10 July 1940 vote of full powers installing the Vichy regime, these camps were filled with Jews, first with foreign Jews, then indifferently with foreign and French Jews. The Vichy government would progressively hand them up to the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

, and they would all transit by

, the last stop before

s in the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

and the

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

s. Beside Jews, Germans and Austrians were immediately rounded-up in camps, as well as Spanish refugees, who were later deported. 5,000 Spaniards thus died in

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

.Film documentary
on the website of the ''

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration The Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration is a museum of immigration history located in the 12th arrondissement of Paris at 293, avenue Daumesnil. The nearest métro station is Porte Dorée. It is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. ...

'' The French colonial soldiers were interned by the Germans on French territory, instead of being deported. The Third Republic and the Vichy regime would successively call these places "reception camps" (), "internment camps" (), ''séjour'' camps (), "guarded ''séjour'' camps" (), "prisoner camps" (), etc. Another category was created by the Vichy regime: the "transit camps" (''"camps de transit''"), referring to the fact the detainees were to be deported to Germany. Such "transit camps" included Drancy,

Pithiviers Pithiviers () is a commune in the Loiret department, north central France. It is one of the subprefectures of Loiret. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, England and Burglengenfeld in Bavaria, Germany. Its attractions incl ...

, etc. In particular, Pithiviers was used in 1941 for the

green ticket roundup The green ticket roundup (french: rafle du billet vert), also known as the green card roundup, took place on 14 May 1941 during the Nazi occupation of France. The mass arrest started a day after French Police delivered a green card () to 6694 f ...

, and Drancy in 1942 for the

Vel' d'Hiv Roundup The Vel' d'Hiv' Roundup ( ; from french: Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv', an abbreviation of ) was a mass arrest of foreign Jewish families by French police and gendarmes at the behest of the German authorities, that took place in Paris on 16 and 17 July ...

, before the victims were deported., as quoted in During the 1944

Battle of Marseille The Battle of Marseille was an urban battle of World War II that took place August 21–28, 1944 and led to the liberation of Marseille by Free French forces under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. The groundwork was laid b ...

and urban in the center of town, 20,000 people were expelled from their homes and interned during several months in military camps nearby Fréjus ( La Lègue, Caïs and Puget). The camp of

Struthof Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a basis in 1940. It operated from 21 May ...

, or Natzweiler-Struthof, in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, one of the concentration camps created by Nazis on annexed French territory, included a

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

which was used to kill at least 86 detainees (mostly Jewish) with the aim of forming a collection of preserved skeletons for the use of Nazi professor

August Hirt August Hirt (28 April 1898 – 2 June 1945) was an anatomist with Swiss and German nationality who served as a chairman at the Reich University in Strasbourg during World War II. He performed experiments with mustard gas on inmates at the Natz ...

Second World War camps

Aincourt Aincourt () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the . Population See also *Communes of the Val-d'Oise department The following is a list of the 184 communes of the Val-d'Oise de ...

, in

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

(PCF) * Les Alliers, near Angoulême, in Charente *

(Saline royale d'Arc-et-Senans) in the

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Avrillé-les-Ponceaux in

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Le Barcarès in the Roussillon *

Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp was an internment and transit camp for foreign-born Jews (men, women, and children), located in Beaune-la-Rolande in occupied France, it was operational between May 1941 and July 1943, during World War II. The ...

Beaune-la-Rolande Beaune-la-Rolande () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. History On 28 November 1870 it was the site of a battle during the Franco-Prussian War, in which French impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille was killed. D ...

in the

Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.< ...

in the

, a former military camp where Jews were detained (

André Glucksmann André Glucksmann (; 19 June 1937 – 10 November 2015) was a French philosopher, activist and writer. He was a leading figure of the new philosophers. Glucksmann began his career as a Marxist, but went on to reject communism in the popular bo ...

was detained there during four years). The camp was used to intern

Harki ''Harki'' (adjective from the Arabic ''harka'', standard Arabic ''haraka'' حركة, "war party" or "movement", i.e., a group of volunteers, especially soldiers) is the generic term for native Muslim Algerian who served as auxiliaries in the F ...

s in the 1960s and

refugees from Iraq in the 1980s (see below). *

Bram Bram may refer to: People * Bram (given name) * Bram (surname) * Bram (wrestler) (born 1986), ring name of professional wrestler Thomas Raymond Latimer * Bram Tchaikovsky (born 1950), stage name of British musician Peter Bramall * Bram Stoker Iris ...

in the Aude (1939–1940) * Brens in the Tarn, near

Gaillac Gaillac (; ) is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France. It had in 2013 a population of 14,334 inhabitants. Its inhabitants are called Gaillacois. Geography Gaillac is a town situated between Toulouse, Albi and Montauban. It has ...

(1939–1940) * Choiseul, in Chateaubriant in

, in Loire-Atlantique (1941–1942) * Camp of Royallieu in

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 19 ...

, Picardy (June 1941 to August 1944). It was used to intern the Jewish detainees arrested during the January 1943

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...

(1900–1945) and the famous French Resistance member

Jean Moulin Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and French Resistance, resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less ...

(1899–1943) transited through this camp. * Coudrecieux in the

, was used to intern Romanis. * Douadic in the Indre department *

: On 20 August 1941, French police conducted raids throughout the 11th ''arrondissement'' (district) of Paris and arrested more than 4,000 Jews, mainly foreign or stateless Jews. French authorities interned these Jews in Drancy, marking its official opening. French police enclosed a police barrack with barbed-wire fencing and provided '' Gendarmerie'' to guard the camp. Drancy fell under the command of the

Office of Jewish Affairs in France and German SS Captain

Theodor Dannecker Theodor Denecke (also spelled Dannecker) (27 March 1913 – 10 December 1945) was a German SS-captain (), a key aide to Adolf Eichmann in the deportation of Jews during World War II. A trained lawyer Denecke first served at the Reich Security M ...

. Five subcamps of Drancy were located throughout Paris (three of which were the Austerlitz, Lévitan and Bassano camps) * Fort-Barraux in the department of Isère. It had already been used as a prison during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

;

Antoine Barnave Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (, 22 October 176129 November 1793) was a French politician, and, together with Honoré Mirabeau, one of the most influential orators of the early part of the French Revolution. He is most notable for corresp ...

was imprisoned there. *

Gurs internment camp Gurs internment camp was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at the e ...

in the

, created in 1939 for the Spanish refugees. During the

Phony War The Phoney War (french: Drôle de guerre; german: Sitzkrieg) was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germa ...

, the Third Republic used it to intern "''indésirables''", that is Germans who were found in France, without regard to ethnicity or political orientation, as foreign citizens of an enemy power. Among them stands out a significant number of German Jews who had fled the very

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime; citizens of countries who were in the orbit of the Reich, like

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...

, Slovak Republic, Fascist Italy, or

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

; French activists of the left (

trade unionists A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

, and especially, communists), following the proscription of the ''Parti Communiste Français'' (PCF) by Daladier after the German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact; the first of these arrived 21 June 1940, and the majority were relocated in other camps before the end of the year. In Gurs were also interned during this period:

anti-militarist Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine that disputes (esp ...

s, representatives of the French extreme right who sympathized with the Nazi regime, ordinary prisoners evacuated from prisons in the north of the country ahead of the German advance, common criminals awaiting trial. Then, under Vichy, Camp Gurs was used to detain foreign Jews, German Jews deported by the SS from southern Germany, persons who had illegally crossed the border of the zone occupied by the Germans, Spaniards fleeing

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

, Spaniards coming from other camps that had been condemned for being uninhabitable or due to their scarce contingent, stateless persons, people involved in prostitution, homosexuals, Romani people and indigents. *

Jargeau Jargeau () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. It lies about south of Paris. Geography The town is located in the French natural region of the Loire Valley, the former province of Orleans and the urban area of Orl ...

, near

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Lalande in the

Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is l ...

, *

Linas Linas is a Lithuanian male given name. It is the Lithuanian form of the name Linus, which derives from the Greek for "flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is ...

Montlhéry Montlhéry () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris. History Montlhéry lay on the strategically important road from Paris to Orléans. Under the Merovingians, it was owned by the ...

in the

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.Marolles in the Loir-et-Cher * Masseube in the Gers * Les Mazures in the Ardennes department, where a '' Judenlager'' was opened from July 1942 to January 1944 * The Merignac internment camp in the Gironde. This is where

Maurice Papon Maurice Papon (; 3 September 1910 – 17 February 2007) was a French civil servant who led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bo ...

had Jews of the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

region interned before going to Drancy. Among others, Robert Aron was detained there. *

Meslay-du-Maine Meslay-du-Maine () is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. Population See also *Communes of Mayenne The following is a list of the 240 communes of the Mayenne department of France. The communes cooperate in the f ...

, in

department (1939–1940) (

Leon Askin Leon Askin (; born Leon Aschkenasy, 18 September 1907 – 3 June 2005) was an Austrian Jewish actor best known in North America for portraying the character General Burkhalter on the TV situation comedy ''Hogan's Heroes''. Life and career ...

held here 1939) * Camp des Milles near Aix-en-Provence in the

, which was the largest internment camp in the southeast of France. 2,500 Jews were deported from there following the August 1942 raids. Novelist

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. Feuchtwanger's J ...

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

artists

Hans Bellmer Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 24 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer. Biography B ...

and

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...

were among the most famous inmates detained in this concentration camp. *

Montceau-les-Mines Montceau-les-Mines () is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is the second-largest commune of the metropolitan Communauté urbaine Creusot Montceau, which lies southwest of ...

* Natzweiler-Struthof a German-run concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) *

Nexon Nexon Co., Ltd. is a global video game publisher, listed in Japan, that specializes in online Virtual World games for PCs, consoles and mobile. Nexon is one of the world’s ten largest interactive game companies based on market capitalization a ...

in the Haute-Vienne * Noé - Mauzac in the

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...

Montreuil-Bellay Montreuil-Bellay () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. It is located approximately 15 km to the south of Saumur, and is famous for the Château de Montreuil-Bellay, which is situated in the town. Montreuil-Be ...

in the Maine-et-Loire, created to intern Romani people * Les Tourelles in Paris * Pithiviers transit camp in

. Jewish novelist

Irène Némirovsky Irène Némirovsky (; 11 February 1903 – 17 August 1942) was a novelist of Russian Jewish origin who was born in Kyiv, the Russian Empire. She lived more than half her life in France, and wrote in French, but was denied French citizenship. Arr ...

(1903–1942) was interned there. * Poitiers in the

Vienne Vienne (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Viéne'') is a landlocked department in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It takes its name from the river Vienne. It had a population of 438,435 in 2019.Port-Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's e ...

, in

Morbihan Morbihan ( , ; br, Mor-Bihan ) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastl ...

, in the fort * Recebedou, in

, in the suburbs of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

* Camp of Rieucros in

Lozère Lozère (; oc, Losera ) is a landlocked department in the region of Occitanie in Southern France, located near the Massif Central, bounded to the northeast by Haute-Loire, to the east by Ardèche, to the south by Gard, to the west by Aveyron, ...

(the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck was interned there) * The

, in the Pyrénées Orientales, "The Drancy of the zone sud"; * '' Fort de Romainville'' ("Fort of Romainville"), was a

prison, located in the outskirts of Paris. The Fort was invested in 1940 by the German military and transformed into a prison. From there, resistance members and hostages were directed to the

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

: 3,900 women and 3,100 men were interned before being deported to Auschwitz, Ravensbrück,

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

and Dachau. 152 persons were executed by firing-squad in the Fort itself. A few escaped, such as

Pierre Georges Pierre Georges (21 January 1919 – 27 December 1944), better known as ''Colonel Fabien'', was one of the two members of the French Communist Party who perpetrated the first assassinations of German personnel during the Occupation of France durin ...

, alias " Colonel Fabien." From her cell,

Danielle Casanova Danielle Casanova (born Vincentella Perini; 9 January 1909 – 9 May 1943) was a French communist activist and member of the French Resistance during World War II. A dentist by occupation, she was a high-ranking figure within the Communist Yout ...

, motivated and encouraged her comrades to confront their torturers. From October 1940, the Fort held only female prisoners (resistance members and hostages), who were jailed, executed or redirected to the Nazi concentration camps outside France. At the time of the Liberation in August 1944, many abandoned corpses were found in the

Fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

's yard. * Saint-Cyprien in the Pyrénées-Orientales. 90,000 Spanish refugees were interned there in March 1939, and it was officially closed on 19 December 1940 for "sanitary reasons", its occupants transferred to the Camp of Gurs. * Saint-Maurice-aux-Riches-Hommes in the

, for Gypsies * Saint-Paul d'Eyjeaux in the Haute-Vienne * Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe. Located near Toulouse, this transit camp was set up after the beginning of the

. It was to house "individuals representing a danger to national security" - mostly militant communists. In June 1940, with the first German attacks on the Soviet Union, people with Russian citizenship were interned there. Later, foreign Jews who had been living in hiding in the south of France and were rounded up in the summer of 1942 were also sent to the camp. The inmates, especially the communists, organized many cultural activities, a "little university", in which each one contributed their knowledge for the collective good. From the summer of 1942 to the closing of the camp in August 1944, most of its inmates were deported to camps in Eastern Europe, to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. * Saliers concentration camp near

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...

in the

, interned Romani people *

Schirmeck Schirmeck () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the location of the Alsace-Moselle Memorial museum. The name of the town means "protected place". In Lorraine dialect it is called "Chermec". ...

in the part not annexed by the Third Reich * Septfonds * Thil in

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.Le Vernet Internment Camp in the Ariège which concentrated 12,000 Spanish refugees as early as 1939. It was used later on for the internment of the harkis. *

Vittel Vittel (; archaic ) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the '' Vittel'' brand. History In 1854, after visiting the baths at nearby ...

in the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

department, where US or British citizens were interned * Voves in the

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Woippy in the department of Moselle, created in 1943.

Camps under foreign authorities

The Nazis also opened

in Alsace (in the part annexed by the Reich). The United States military police also possessed legal authority over the camp in Septèmes-les-Vallons, in the

Ilags

''Ilag'' (for ''Internierunslager'') were internment camps established by the German Army to hold Allied civilians, captured in areas that were occupied by the Germans. They included US citizens caught in Europe by surprise when the war was declared in December 1941 and citizens of the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

caught in areas engulfed by the Blitzkrieg. *

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

in the Doubs (in the Vauban barracks). Also called '' Frontstalag 142'', it was actually an internment camp. At the end of 1940, 2,400 women, mostly British, were interned in the Vauban barracks and another five hundred, old and sick, in the St. Jacques hospital close by. In early 1941, many of them were released, the rest were transferred to

. * Saint-Denis, near Paris. Located in the barracks, the camp was opened in June 1940 and remained in use until liberated by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in August 1944. Part of the grounds were surrounded by barbed wire to provide open space for exercise. In early 1942, there were more than 1,000 male British internees in the camp. The meagre food rations were augmented by the

International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

packages, so that overall their diet was satisfactory. Life was tolerable because there was a good library and recreation was provided by sports activities and theater *

, ''Frontstalag 121'' was located in requisitioned hotels in this spa near Epinal in the

department. Most of the British families and single women were transferred here from Saint-Denis and Besançon. In early 1942, women over sixty, men over seventy-five and children under sixteen were released. The overall population was thus reduced to about 2,400. The inmates included a number of North-American families and women.

Colonial administration

Although not architecturally conceived as an internment camp, the ''Vel' d'Hiv'' (Winter Velodrome) was used during the July 1942 Roundup. Most internment camps, however, were not conceived as such. The ''Vel d'Hiv'' was also used during the Algerian War (''see below''). In the colonial empire, Vichy created in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

s ("''camps de travail''") for Jews in: *

Abadla Abadla ( ar, العبادلة) is a town and commune in western Algeria, and capital of Abadla District, Béchar Province. It is located on the Oued Guir southwest of Béchar. According to the 2008 census its population is 13,636, up from 10,8 ...

, Algeria * Ain el Ourak * Bechar, Algeria * Berguent * Bogari * Bouarfa, Morocco * Djefa * Kénadsa, Algeria * Meridja, Algeria * Missour, Morocco * Tendrara, Morocco

The liberation

German prisoners of war

Camps were also used after the liberation to intern German prisoners. In Rennes, after

General Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

United States Third Army The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf Wa ...

liberated the city on 4 August 1944, about 50,000 German prisoners were kept in four camps in a city of 100,000 inhabitants at the time. In the

, the German prisoners worked extensively in the reconstruction of Pyrénées-Orientales, between May 1945 and 1946, 412 German prisoners of war died in the camp.

After World War II

Indochina War

Internment camps were used to receive French from

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

following the end of the

Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

in 1954, as well as approximatively 9,000 Hungarian refugees following the Budapest insurrection of 1956 (in Annecy, Colmar—''Caserne Valter''—, in Gap, in

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...

, in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

—''Caserne Raffenel'', in Montdauphin, in Montluçon—''Caserne de Richemond''—, in Nancy (''camp de Chatelleraud''), in Poitiers, in Rennes, in Rouen, in Strasbourg—''caserne Stirn''—and in

Valdahon Valdahon () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Doubs department The following is a list of the 571 communes of the Doubs department of Franc ...

). Humanitarian concerns largely intertwined with repressive aims, and internment restrictions and assistance given to populations varied widely (Hungarian refugees were better treated than French from Indochina).

Algerian War

Internment was also put to use during the Algerian War (1954–1962), generally under the name of "''camps de regroupement''" ("regrouping camps"). Within Algeria, the colonial administration used a form of camps as a counter-insurgency tactic, with up to 2 million civilians being internally deported in ''villages de regroupement'') to prevent their falling under the influence of the opposing FLN forces. were brought to French metropolitan territory. In France, some camps used under Vichy were opened again, in Paris in particular, to hold suspected FLN and other Algerian independentists.

The Harkis

Internment camps were also used to intern the

s (Algerians who fought on the French Army's side) after the 19 March 1962

which put an official end to the war. Finally, the ''Camp de Rivesaltes'' in the ''Pyrénées-Orientales'', and ''Bourg-Lastic'' in the ''Puy de Dôme'', used to intern Jews, were also used to intern Harkis in the 1960s, and Kurdish refugees from Iraq in the 1980s.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Peter Gaida, Camps de travail sous Vichy, Lulu Press 2014

External links

Concentration Camps in France
at the online exhibition The Holocaust in France at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

website
Camps en France
* ttp://www.souviens-toi.org/iti_lieux.html Souviens-toi des déportés - Les lieux d'internement avant les camps de concentrationbr>MapExil ordinaire [Recherche]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Concentration Camps In France 20th century in France