Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp
World War II internment and transit camp for Jews in Nazi-occupied France From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp was a transit and detention facility[b] operated by French and German authorities in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Built in 1939 to house German prisoners of war, it was later used to detain French POWs and, from 1941, foreign-born Jews living in the Paris region. In May 1942, following the imposition of direct German control, mass deportations to extermination camps, primarily Auschwitz, began. Among the victims were over 1,500 children arrested during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup and interned at Beaune-la-Rolande before their deportation and murder.
| Beaune-la-Rolande | |
|---|---|
| Transit camp | |
 Prisoners outside barracks at Beaune-la-Rolande | |
 Location of Beaune-la-Rolande in France | |
| Coordinates | 48.0706°N 2.4300°E |
| Location | Beaune-la-Rolande, Loiret, German-occupied France |
| Operated by | |
| Commandant |
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| Original use | Prisoner-of-war camp |
| Operational | 14 May 1941 – 12 July 1943[2] |
| Inmates | Foreign-born Jews living in the Paris region (primarily Polish, Czech, Austrian and German) |
| Number of inmates | 6,800[a] |
| Killed | 6,400 deported to Auschwitz[2] |
| Notable inmates | René Blum, Zber, Ralph Erwin, Adélaïde Hautval, Denise Kandel |
In September 1942, the camp returned to French control and was used to intern political prisoners, particularly Communists, before its closure in August 1943. Along with Drancy and Pithiviers, Beaune-la-Rolande was one of three major internment camps in the Paris region. Approximately 6,800 Jews passed through its gates; most were deported to Auschwitz and killed. Notable prisoners included René Blum and Adélaïde Hautval. The site has since become a focus of memorial efforts and historical research into France’s role in the Holocaust.
History
Summarize
Perspective
Establishment as a POW camp (1939–1941)
Located in the Loiret Département, 89 km (55 miles) south of Paris, the Beaune-la-Rolande camp was constructed in 1939 to house German prisoners of war captured by French forces. Following the Fall of France in June 1940, it was seized by the Wehrmacht and repurposed to detain French prisoners of war awaiting transfer to camps in Germany. Together with the neighbouring Pithiviers camp, it formed part of Frontstalag 152, an internment complex established on 20 July 1940.[4]
Inspections that summer reported severe overcrowding, with up to 14,000 prisoners confined at Beaune-la-Rolande alone. Conditions were harsh: food shortages, outbreaks of dysentery, and high mortality among colonial prisoners from North Africa were recorded.[5] French Red Cross reports described deteriorating health, inadequate sanitation, and near-starvation rations. German authorities eventually sought to ease overcrowding by transferring prisoners to other facilities, but conditions remained poor until Frontstalag 152 was dissolved in March 1941 during a reorganisation of German prisoner policy.[6]
Conversion to a Jewish internment camp (1941–1942)
Following the anti-Jewish legislation enacted by Vichy France in October 1940, Beaune-la-Rolande was repurposed as an internment centre for foreign-born Jews living in the German-occupied zone. The camp was placed under the authority of the prefecture of the Loiret, operating with direct German oversight.[7] It was designated as a "1st category" camp, meaning it primarily held Jews interned at the demand of the German occupation authorities rather than under French police orders.[8]
The first detainees, mostly Polish Jews, arrived on 14 May 1941 following the Green ticket roundup.[9] By October 1941, the camp population included 1,341 Poles, 73 Czechs, 26 Austrians, two Lithuanians, one Portuguese national, one Saarlander, one Hungarian, and 107 French Jews.[8] Prisoners were housed in 19 wooden barracks enclosed by barbed wire fences and guarded by French gendarmes, customs officers, and auxiliary personnel.[10]
Detainees were subjected to forced labour within the camp and at surrounding farms and industrial sites.[8] Beaune-la-Rolande's proximity to Pithiviers, located 18 kilometres (11 miles) away, reinforced their combined role as the primary internment camps for Jews in the northern zone.[11] By the end of 1941, the camp's security forces included over 170 personnel, armed with rifles and pistols.[12] Escape attempts were frequent: between July and August 1941, approximately 313 prisoners, out of an estimated 2,000, fled during external work assignments. In the final week of July alone, 85 detainees escaped, leading to German accusations of negligence against the French gendarmerie.[13]
German takeover and deportations (1942)
In May 1942, under orders from Theodor Dannecker, German authorities assumed direct control of Beaune-la-Rolande. Prisoners were confined within the camp perimeter, and external work assignments were suspended.[8] Following the German takeover, deportations from Beaune-la-Rolande began during the summer of 1942.[14]
Convoy 5 departed on 28 June 1942 carrying 1,038 deportees: 1,004 men and 34 women.[15][16] Most deportees were foreign-born Jews from the Greater Paris area, arrested during the May and August 1941 operations.[16] Among the 965 individuals whose nationality was recorded, 752 were Polish, 53 French, 41 Czech, 12 Romanian, 10 Austrian, six Russian, three German, two Dutch, two Belgian, ten stateless, and 73 undetermined.[16] The convoy left Beaune-la-Rolande at 5:20 am, stopped briefly at Pithiviers, and continued towards Auschwitz, where most deportees were murdered shortly after arrival.[17]
Following the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in July 1942, between 19 and 22 July 1942, families who had been detained at the Vélodrome d'Hiver were transferred to the Loiret camps, including Beaune-la-Rolande.[18] No preparations had been made to receive them, and by the end of July, 3,090 individuals were interned at Beaune-la-Rolande, including 1,380 children.[19] Conditions in the camp deteriorated rapidly, with overcrowding, a lack of food and hygiene, and outbreaks of measles and diphtheria causing the deaths of several children.[19] On 31 July 1942, adults and children over the age of thirteen were deported to Auschwitz, where most were murdered, with parents forcibly separated from their younger children.[19][20]
Convoy 15 departed on 5 August 1942 carrying 1,013 deportees: 588 women and 425 men.[21][22] Over half of the women were between the ages of 34 and 50, and many of the men were between 39 and 49. The convoy included 176 girls aged 13 to 21 and 93 boys aged 13 to 19, with some mothers deported together with their children.[22] Nationality records listed 672 Poles, 86 Russians, 16 Germans, five French, two Czechs, two Turks, two Romanians, one Austrian, and 108 individuals whose nationality was undetermined.[22] The majority of deportees were murdered shortly after arrival at Auschwitz.[14]
On 8 August 1942, approximately 1,500 children remained at Beaune-la-Rolande,[14] under the care of a few interned social workers and doctors, pending a decision from Berlin.[19] Many of these children were under twelve years old and were detained in overcrowded and increasingly desperate conditions.[14] Between 19 and 25 August 1942, the children were transferred to Drancy internment camp in three convoys and then deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered upon arrival.[23]
Closure (1942–1943)
In September 1942, the administration of Beaune-la-Rolande was returned to the French authorities. The camp was repurposed primarily as a detention site for non-Jewish political prisoners, especially Communists.[8] Although large-scale Jewish deportations had ended, Beaune-la-Rolande continued to serve a secondary logistical role within the internment system.[24]
In early 1943, the camp was used to manage overflow from Drancy internment camp, serving as a temporary holding site for prisoners awaiting deportation. Transfers between Drancy and Beaune-la-Rolande took place intermittently. On 19 June 1943, 102 detainees were transferred from Beaune-la-Rolande back to Drancy in preparation for deportation.[24]
The decision to close Beaune-la-Rolande was taken during the summer of 1943. Acting on orders from Heinrich Himmler to consolidate internment operations, SS officer Alois Brunner, the commander of Drancy, oversaw the closure process.[25] Beaune-la-Rolande was formally shut down on 4 August 1943. Remaining detainees were either transferred to Drancy or released into French custody.
Notable detainees
Several prominent individuals were imprisoned at Beaune-la-Rolande prior to their deportation or release, including artists, intellectuals, and cultural figures:
- René Blum, French Jewish theatre producer and founder of the Ballet de l'Opéra in Monte Carlo. He was deported and later murdered at Auschwitz.[26]
- Ralph Erwin, Austrian-born composer, best known for the song Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame. He died while imprisoned at Beaune-la-Rolande.[27]
- Zber, Polish Jewish painter who created artworks during his internment. He was later deported to Auschwitz and killed.[28]
- Denise Kandel, French-born child survivor of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, later an eminent sociologist in the United States.[14]
- Adélaïde Hautval, French physician and psychiatrist, later recognised as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. She provided clandestine medical care while imprisoned at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz after her deportation.[29]
Commemoration
A commemorative stele was installed at the former site of Beaune-la-Rolande in 1965. A larger memorial, built from black marble and inscribed with a gold Star of David, was inaugurated on 14 May 1989. The monument lists the names of deportees from the camp.[30]
In 1994, a plaque was placed on the façade of the former railway station used for deportations, installed by the Association des Fils et Filles des Déportés Juifs de France.[31] Remnants of Barrack No. 4, one of the camp's original prisoner quarters, were recovered in 2008 and reconstructed at the Musée-Mémorial des Enfants du Vel' d'Hiv in Orléans.[31]
The original 1965 stele bears the bilingual inscription:[32]
Que cette pierre témoigne de la souffrance des hommes
May this stone bear witness to the suffering of men
In popular culture
Beaune-la-Rolande has been depicted in several works of literature, film, and documentary focusing on the Holocaust in France:
- Sarah's Key (2010), a film adaptation of Tatiana de Rosnay's novel, includes scenes set at Beaune-la-Rolande.[30]
- The Round Up (2010), a French historical drama, portrays the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup and the internment of Jewish families at the camp.[33]
- Illusions perdues 1941–1942. Fragments d'une vie en sursis (2011), a documentary film, explores Jewish internment at Beaune-la-Rolande.[34]
- Beaune-la-Rolande (2003), a novel by Cécile Wajsbrot, examines memory and trauma linked to the camp.[35]
- After the Roundup: Escape and Survival in Hitler's France (2017), a memoir by Joseph Weismann, recounts his experiences as a child survivor who escaped from the camp.[36]
- La petite fille du Vel' d'Hiv (1991), a memoir by Annette Muller, describes her arrest and detention at Beaune-la-Rolande.[37]
- On n'oubliera pas. Beaune-la-Rolande 1942 (2025), a documentary broadcast by France 3, examines the camp's role during the Holocaust.[24]
Legacy
The Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp has become a symbol of French collaboration in the Holocaust. Historians such as Denis Peschanski, Renée Poznanski, and Annette Wieviorka have highlighted the camp's role in the broader system of internment and deportation established in Nazi-occupied France. The mass deportation and murder of over 1,500 children from Beaune-la-Rolande, following the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, remains one of the most documented episodes of French complicity.[14] Today, Beaune-la-Rolande features in museum exhibitions and memorial projects documenting the Holocaust in France.[38]
See also
Notes
References
Sources
External links
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