| Camp des Milles | |
|---|---|
| Concentration camp | |
 Building which served as a concentration camp at Camp des Milles | |
  Location of Camp des Milles within France | |
| Coordinates | 43°30′12″N5°23′08″E / 43.50333°N 5.38556°E /43.50333; 5.38556 |
| Location | NearLes Milles,Provence,France |
| Built by | French Third Republic |
| Operated by | French Third Republic,Vichy France |
| Original use | tile factory, then internment of Germans and Austrians living in France |
| Inmates | French Jews and Jewish refugees from Central Europe (mostly male) |
| Number of inmates | thousands, of whom 2,000 Jews deported viaDrancy, mostly toAuschwitz |
TheCamp des Milles[kɑ̃demil] was a Frenchinternment camp, opened in September 1939, in a formertile factory near the village ofLes Milles, part of thecommune ofAix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône).[1] In October 2015, the site was chosen byUNESCO as the headquarters for its new Chair of Education for Citizenship, Human Sciences and Shared Memories.[2]
The camp was first used to intern Germans and ex-Austrians living in theMarseille area, and by June 1940, some 3,500 artists and intellectuals were detained there.[1][3][4][5][6] Inmates included men of letters such asFritz Brugel,Lion Feuchtwanger, William Herzog,Alfred Kantorowicz,Golo Mann,Walter Hasenclever, scientists such asNobel Prize laureateOtto Fritz Meyerhof, as well as musicians and painters such asErich Itor Kahn,Hans Bellmer,Max Ernst,Hermann Henry Gowa,Gustave Herlich,Max Lingner,Ferdinand Springer,Franz Meyer,Jan Meyerowitz, Peter Lipman-Wulf,François Willi Wendt andRobert Liebknecht.[1][3][4][7][8][9]
Between 1941 and 1942 Le Camp des Milles was used as a transit camp for Jews, mainly men. Women were held at the Centre Bompard in Marseille, while they waited for their visas and authorisations[10] to emigrate. As emigration became impossible, Les Milles became one of thecentres de rassemblement before deportation.[1] About 2,000 of the inmates were shipped off to theDrancy internment camp on the way toAuschwitz.[4] After the war, the site was briefly re-opened in 1946 as a factory.
Since 1993, the site has served as aWorld War II memorial.[4] The "Fondation du camp des Milles: mémoire et éducation" (Foundation of the Camp des Milles: Memory and Education) is directed by Alain Chouraqui, a researcher at theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research.[3]
On September 10, 2012, seventy years after the last train left from Les Milles to theAuschwitz concentration camp, the memorial was inaugurated byFrench Prime MinisterJean-Marc Ayrault.[3]Elie Wiesel,Simone Veil andSerge Klarsfeld visited and praised the memorial.[3]
The Memorial also includes the sculpture, "They will never be forgotten: Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, and Marceline Kogan" by Hal Goldberg.
In 1995, a movie entitledLes Milles commemorating this camp and the events that took place in this camp at the time of the Armistice in June 1940 was made.
On 8 October 2015, UNESCO launched its new Chair for Education for Citizenship, Human Sciences and Shared Memories at the Camp des Milles in the presence of French PresidentFrançois Hollande. The Chair will focus on research and activism centered on the history of the Holocaust, citizenship and the prevention of genocide. According to Hollande, the Chair will serve as "a national site for training and citizenship through memory."[11]
Please select the database you want to use : ... Various lists about French internment camps...
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
