Elsbeth Kasser Foundation
Internment camps in France
Between 1939 and 1946, the south of France was home to a large number of internment camps. Unlike concentration camps, these were not extermination camps, but establishments to which a wide range of population groups considered undesirable or dangerous were sent. Initially, the majority were Spanish refugees fleeing General Franco's armies and crossing the Pyrenees into France. After crossing the border, they were housed in makeshift camps, some of which they had to build themselves. Some of them were later able to leave the camp, so there was room to later intern citizens of the 'enemy powers' as well as politically undesirable people.
Soon, the camps were also used to intern Jews deported from Germany or other parts of France. Conditions in these camps, which were temporary at first, were catastrophic. The cold, malnutrition and poor hygiene cost many people their lives. Aid organisations, particularly Swiss ones, which sometimes had access to the internment camps, were able to provide some relief.
From the spring of 1942, the internment camps in the south of France took on an important role in the German logic of the Final Solution. They became preparatory sites for deportation to the extermination camps. Of the 320,000 Jews in France, 76,000 were deported. Around 10,000 were handed over to the Germans by the authorities of the Vichy regime. Many were deported directly from internment camps.