An internment camp is
When did the internment camps appear in France?
Under the Third Republic, in a context of growing xenophobia, internment camps are part of an exceptional logic: the law of 12 November 1938 allows the internment of "foreign undesirable" in specialized centers. The first camp opened at Rieucros (Lozère) in February 1939, when around 465,000 Spaniards fled from Francoism.
World War II and the internment camps in France
Between 1940 and 1942, the camps were part of a logic of control and exclusion. The Vichy regime accuses the "anti-France forces", that is to say the Jews, foreigners, communists and freemasons, of being responsible for the defeat and representing dangers for society. Internment camps will become a means of exclusion and repression vis-à-vis the targeted populations.
In the free zone, at the end of 1940, 30,000 foreign Jews were already interned, under the law of 4 October 1940 promulgated by the Vichy regime.
At the request of the Nazi occupier, nomads were also interned in camps.
In the occupied zone, two camps reserved for Jews were created by German order in May 1941: Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande (Loiret). On 14 May, the authorities distributed there the 3,700 Jews arrested during the "round-up" of the green ticket.
In August 1941, the Drancy camp was opened: it was intended for the internment of Jews from France. In these camps, the living conditions are particularly difficult: hunger, lack of hygiene and disease are the daily lives of many people.
From the spring of 1942, internment camps were used as antechambers for the deportation of Jews to places of death.
And at the Liberation?
Suspects of collaboration are detained, often in places that had been used for internment under the Vichy regime.
As for the nomads, the last internee was released from the Alliers camp (Charente) on 1 June 1946.
