Gurs internment camp
Gurs internment camp (French: Camp de Gurs, pronounced [kɑ̃ də ɡyʁs]) was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at the end of the Spanish Civil War to control those who fled Spain out of fear of retaliation from Francisco Franco's regime. At the start of World War II, the French government interned 4,000 German Jews as "enemy aliens", along with French socialist political leaders and those who opposed the war with Germany.
| Gurs | |
|---|---|
| Concentration camp | |
Gurs c. 1939 | |
Location of Gurs within France | |
| Coordinates | 43°15′53″N 0°43′54″W |
| Known for | The only westward deportation of German Jews |
| Location | Gurs, Pyrénées-Atlantiques |
| Built by | French Third Republic |
| Operated by | French Third Republic, Vichy France |
| Original use | Internment of Spanish Republican refugees |
| Inmates | German Jews, French political prisoners |
| Number of inmates | 64,000 total, of whom 5,500 Jews deported via Drancy, mostly to Auschwitz |
| Liberated by | Free French |
| Notable inmates | |
| Notable books | Mickey au Camp de Gurs |
After the Vichy government signed an armistice with the Nazis in 1940, it became an internment camp for mainly German Jews, as well as people considered dangerous by the government. After France's liberation, Gurs housed German prisoners of war and French collaborators. Before its final closure in 1946, the camp held former Spanish Republican fighters who participated in the Resistance against the German occupation, because their stated intention of opposing the fascist dictatorship imposed by Franco made them threatening in the eyes of the Allies.