Numerous internment camps and concentration camps were located in France before, during and after World War II. Beside the camps created during World War I to intern German, Austrian and Ottoman civilian prisoners, the Third Republic (1871–1940) opened various internment camps for the Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Following the prohibition of the French Communist Party (PCF) by the government of Édouard Daladier, they were used to detain communist political prisoners. The Third Republic also interned German anti-Nazis (mostly members of the Communist Party of Germany, KPD).
Then, after the 10 July 1940 vote of full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain and the proclamation of the État français (Vichy regime), these camps were used to intern Jews, Gypsies, 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 writes: "The quick opening of new camps created jobs, and the Gendarmerie never ceased to hire during this period."Maurice Rajsfus, Drancy, un camp de concentration très ordinaire, Cherche Midi éditeur (2005). In any case, most of these camps were closed definitively after the liberation of France at the end of World War II. Some "regroupement camps" were however used during the Algerian War (1954–1962). Several of these were then used to intern harkis (Algerians who had fought on the French side) after the 19 March 1962 Évian Accords. Finally, the Camp de Rivesaltes in the Pyrénées-Orientales and the camp of Bourg-Lastic in the Puy de Dôme were also used to intern Kurdish refugees from Iraq in the 1980s.
Nineteenth century onward
First World War and later
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, Fort-Barreaux in Isère, in the military camp of Graveson (Bouches-du-Rhône), in Frigolet near Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône), Noirlac (Abbey) (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); Gypsies after the 1912 Act on nomadism (for instance in the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, but also in iron mines in the Manche and other disaffected industrial centers in Mayenne, in the Manche, in Loire-Atlantique, in the Sarthe, 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 Spanish Civil War.Hugh Thomas, (1976). Historia de la Guerra Civil Española. Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores. ; p. 943 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, 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, in the north-west of France. These camps were located in:
Agde in the Hérault department (near Montpellier) Argelès-sur-Mer, between Perpignan and the border Camp Gurs in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 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 camp for purification according to the Law of Political Responsibilities. Camp Vernet near Pamiers, in the Ariège. Moisdon-la-Rivière and Juigné-des-Moutiers in Loire-Atlantique department (Brittany).Moisdon-la-Rivière - Les Espagnols Internés à Moisdon-la-Rivière and Le Camp de La Forge in Moisdon-la-Rivière The Camp de Rivesaltes, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales. The Jewish detainees were sent to Drancy internment camp, near Paris, the Gypsies to Saliers and the Spaniards 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, which departed on 2 August 1939, and arrived in Valparaíso at the beginning of September 1939.
After 1940 when 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
As early as 1939, the existing camps were indiscriminately filled with German anti-Nazis (Communists, 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, and they would all transit by Drancy internment camp, the last stop before concentration camps in the Third Reich and in Eastern Europe and the extermination camps.
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.Film documentary on the website of the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration 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 camps that briefly held prisoners before deportation to other Nazi camps. Beaune-la-Rolande, Pithiviers, Drancy and Compiègne formed the core of the internment and deportation system for Jews in northern France. Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande were used during the 1941 green ticket roundup as well as during the 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, before the victims, including children, were transferred to Drancy and finally deported to Auschwitz were they were murdered., as quoted in
During the 1944 Battle of Marseille 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, or Natzweiler-Struthof, in Alsace, one of the concentration camps created by Nazis on annexed French territory, included a gas chamber 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.
Second World War camps Aincourt, in Seine-et-Oise, was the first internment camp in the Northern Zone. It was opened on 5 October 1940, and quickly filled with members of the French Communist Party (PCF) Les Alliers, near Angoulême, in Charente Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans (Saline royale d'Arc-et-Senans) in the Doubs, used for Gypsies Avrillé-les-Ponceaux in Indre-et-Loire, camp of the Morellerie for Gypsies Le Barcarès in the Roussillon Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp at Beaune-la-Rolande in the Loiret Bourg-Lastic in the Puy de Dôme, a former military camp where Jews were detained (André Glucksmann was detained there for four years). The camp was used to intern Harkis in the 1960s and Kurdish refugees from Iraq in the 1980s (see below). Bram in the Aude (1939–1940) Brens in the Tarn, near Gaillac (1939–1940) Choisel, in Chateaubriant in Brittany, in Loire-Atlantique (1941–1942) Camp of Royallieu in Compiègne, Picardy (June 1941 to August 1944). It was used to intern the Jewish detainees arrested during the January 1943 Marseille roundup. Robert Desnos (1900–1945) and the famous French Resistance member Jean Moulin (1899–1943) transited through this camp. Coudrecieux in the Sarthe, was used to intern Romanis. Douadic in the Indre department Drancy internment camp: 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 Gestapo Office of Jewish Affairs in France and German SS Captain Theodor Dannecker. Five subcamps of Drancy were located throughout Paris (three of which were the Austerlitz, Lévitan and Bassano camps)United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Drancy" article for the Holocaust Encyclopedia (accessed 5 July 2009). Fort-Barraux in the department of Isère. It had already been used as a prison during the French Revolution; Antoine Barnave was imprisoned there. Gurs internment camp in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, created in 1939 for the Spanish refugees. During the Phony War, 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 regime; citizens of countries who were in the orbit of the Reich, like Austria, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Slovak Republic, Fascist Italy, or Poland; French activists of the left (trade unionists, socialists, anarchists, 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-militarists, 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, 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, near Orléans, used for the internment of Romani people Lalande in the Yonne, Linas-Montlhéry in the Seine-et-Oise for Romani people 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 had Jews of the Bordeaux region interned before going to Drancy. Among others, Robert Aron was detained there. Meslay-du-Maine, in Mayenne department (1939–1940) (Leon Askin held here 1939)