The Rieucros Camp was an

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 ...

on a forested hillside near Mende in the French department of

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, ...

that operated from January 1939 to February 1942. Prime Minister

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 ...

established the camp by decree on January 21, 1939, to isolate members of the International Brigades from French society after the defeat of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...

and subsequent exile, known as ''la Retirada'', in 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 ...

. Other "suspicious and undesirable foreign men," sometimes accused of common law crimes, were also interned. After France's entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, authorities transferred the men to the camp of le Vernet and began to intern "suspicious and undesirable foreign women" in October 1939. Following the Battle of France, Rieucros fell in the southern unoccupied zone and the

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...

regime assumed control of the camp from Third Republican authorities. In February 1942, authorities transferred the entire camp population of women and children to the camp of Brens.

Background

In the late 1930s, the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 19 ...

increasingly restricted immigration as increasing numbers of political refugees fled ascendant European dictatorships. Prime Minister

of the Radical Party circumvented Parliament to issue a series of decree laws that closed avenues of legal immigration and punished illegal immigration in 1938 and 1939, reversing the nation's tradition of being a country of asylum. Daladier's decree of November 12, 1938 gave the state the power to intern foreigners in camps. As the

came to a close in the first months of 1939, the armies of soon to be dictator Francisco Franco drove nearly 500,000 refugees north across the border with France. The

responded by creating a series of

internment camps 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 ...

to house and confine the refugees, the first of which was Rieucros. Historians cite French fears of social revolution and civil war, xenophobia, and the notion that foreign antifascists fleeing

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

, and

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

wanted to draw France into another European war "to satisfy their personal lust for revenge" as motivating factors for France's hostile reception of refugees during this time. As a result, the majority of the interned populations in France on the eve of

were the first victims and opponents of European fascism, allowing for a near seamless takeover by the collaborationist

regime when the Third Republic fell to

Nazi Germany 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 ...

in June 1940.

Internees

The following people were interned in the camp of Rieucros: *Italian antifascist Ernesto Bonomini was interned and escaped the camp in April 1939 *Russian anarchist writer

Ida Mett Ida Mett (1901-1973) was a Belarusian Jewish anarcho-syndicalist, physician and writer. Following her experiences in the Russian Revolution, she fled into exile in France, where she collaborated with other exiled revolutionary anarchists on the ...

and her son *German Communist resister Dora Schaul *Journalist Hanka Grothendieck and her son, mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck *Spanish Republican Isabel del Castillo and her son, writer Michel del Castillo *Writer and journalist Lenka Reinerová *French Communist resister Angelita Bettini * Teresa Noce, Italian labor leader, activist and journalist

Memorial Association

''L'Association pour le souvenir de Rieucros'' is a memorial association established on August 12, 1992, with the goal "to preserve the memory of the suffering of the camp's internees but also to study the causes leading to the creation of such a camp in the recent past." Members of the Association include former internees and their surviving family members, among others. The association engages in educational and commemorative activities, including preserving the site of the camp, creating informative historical plaques, and participating in an annual commemorative ceremony on July 16, the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Racist and Antisemitic Persecution on the anniversary of 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 ...

. Few traces remain of the camp. The barracks and barbed wire have disappeared. The most significant vestige of the camp today is a carved rock that depicts a soldier with a gun and the dates 1789 and 1939, marking the 150th anniversary of 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 ...

. A nearby rock bears the inscription "Gierke, Walter," a former internee of the camp who may have sculpted the memorial.

References

{{Authority control World War II internment camps in France Buildings and structures in Lozère Vichy France Internment camps of the Spanish Civil War 1939 establishments in France

Background

Internees

Memorial Association

Further reading

Literature and Memoirs

Non-Fiction

References