A man walks past the remains of Rivesaltes Camp between Rivesaltes and Perpignan, southern France. SEE DESCRIPTION FOR DETAILS.
The Camp de Rivesaltes or Camp Joffre outside Rivesaltes in the south of France has been used for various forms of internment from 1939 to as recently as 2007. The camp was originally built as a military camp but was used for the internment of Republican refugees who had crossed the border from Spain during the Spanish Civil War (the Retirada). During the Second World War the camp came under the administration of the Vichy government and was used for families of gypsies and Jews together with Spanish refugees. In 1942 over 2,000 Jews were sent from Rivesaltes to Auschwitz via the Drancy internment camp in northern France. Following the departure of the German army in 1944, the camp was briefly used by the Vichy administration until it became a prisoner of war camp, holding mainly Germans and Italians until 1948. In 1962, during the Algerian War, the camp briefly held people convicted as supporters of Algerian independence. From 1962 to 1977 the camp was used as a transit and rehabilitation camp for Harkis - these were the Muslim Algerians who had served with the French Army during the Algerian War. The camp was also used during the 1960s to house other colonial forces and their families following the break-up of the French colonial empire. Finally, it was used as an immigration detention centre from 1986 to 2007. The camp is now closed and semi-derelict and there have been proposals for demolition, however it has been recognised that there should be some form of permanent museum/preservation on at least part of the site.
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Photo credit: © SJ Images / Alamy / Afripics
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