PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA | HISTORY ROMA CHILDREN COUNCIL CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L´EUROPE IN EUROPE INTERNMENT IN FRANCE 5.3 1940 - 1946 Internment in France 1940 - 1946 Marie-Christine Hubert Identifying “Gypsies” and Tracking their Movements | Compulsory Residence Orders for “Nomads” in the Third Reich | Internment in the Unoccupied Zone | Internment in the Occupied Zone | After the Liberation | Daily Life in the Camps | Cases of Deportation from French Internment Camps In France there were two different but parallel approaches to the so-called “Gypsy question”. The French approach of using internment as a way of bringing the “Tsiganes” (“Gypsies”) into the mainstream of society prevailed over the German approach of internment as the first step to mass murder. Thus France’s Roma, unlike those living in other countries under German occupation, were not exterminated in the camp at Auschwitz. However, they did not escape persecution: whole families were interned in special camps throughout the country, both during and after the occupation. INTRODUCTION INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR “GYPSIES” 4 ZONE GOVERNED FROM THE IN FRANCE DURING WORLD WAR II GERMAN HEADQUARTERS IN BRUSSELS Whereas in the 1930s in Germany the Ill. 1 (by Jo Saville and Marie-Christine Hubert, from Bul- so-called “Gypsy question” was view- letin Association des Enfants Cachés, No. 8 March 1998) 4 ed as a complex one, involving racial, NB. The other interment camps for Jews are not shown 3 ZONE ANNEXED social and cultural features, French on this map BY GERMANY authorities, although drawing upon a 1 FORBIDDEN ZONE 1 well-established tradition of anti-“Gy- LOUVIERS 2 RESTRICTED psy” resentments, followed a more or ZONE 3 less social approach in their need to MONTLHERY deal with the “Gypsy problem”. Avo- PLENÉE JUGON 5 CORAY RENNES ST-MAURICE 2 iding public use of racial criteria, they PONTIVY MONTSÛRS AUX-RICHES postulated a population category in GREZ-EN-BOUËRE COUDRECIEUX HOMMES PEIGNEY CHOISEL MULSANNE JARGEAU 1912, “nomads”, which, although ne- MOISDON-LE-RIVIÈRE ver clearly defined, meant “Gypsies” MOTREUIL-BELLAY MOLOY exclusively. From then on life for Roma LA MORELIERIE ARC-ET-SENANS in France became more and more diffi- POITIERS cult. In 1940 the first “Gypsies” were MONSIREIGNE interned in camps both in the occupied 6 “FREE” ZONE UNTIL 5 ZONE UNDER TH and the unoccupied parts of the country. OCCUPATION NOV. 11 1942 About half of the pre-war “Gyp- LES ALLIERS 6 sy” population of France, some 13,000 people, were interned in special camps MÉRIGNAC 7 ITALIAN ZONE FROM NOV. 11TH 7 throughout the country. Apart from 1942* TO SEPT. 8TH 1943, THEN being interned, they suffered diseases UNDER GERMAN RULE (INC. CORSE) and hunger and, in many cases, were recruited for forced labour. Although DEMARCATION LINE there are no records of mass depor- UNTIL NOV. 11TH 1942 SALIERS tation on racial grounds until the end RIVESALTES of the war, not even in the occupied LANNEMEZAN LA BARCARÉS part of France, at least more than 200 ARGÈLÉS “Gypsies” of French origin were mur- dered in Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald Main French internment camps for “nomads” * “Départements” as in that period and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Internment camps where “Gypsies” and Jews were held at the same or at different times Identifying “Gypsies” and Tracking their Movements Compulsory Residence Orders for “Nomads” in the Third Reich Internment in the Unoccupied Zone Internment in the Occupied Zone Ill. 3 (Detail) Ill. 2 Decree-law of April 6, 1940. Article 1 reads: “La circulation des no- “Nomads” in the camp at Montreuil-Bellay (Département mades est interdite sur la totalité du territoire métropolitain pour la Maine-et-Loire), 1944. This was the biggest internment camp durée de la guerre.” (The circulation of the “nomads” is prohibited in for “nomads” in France, with up to 1,000 people interned. France for the duration of the war.) (from Hubert 1999, p. 76) (from the archives of the Département Bouches-du-Rhône) an exaggerated sense of insecurity in traders) and “nomads”. Article 3 of the IDENTifYING “GYPSIES” AND people‘s minds whilst, at the same time, law, defining the category of “nomads”, TRACKING THEIR MOVEMENTS the laws against vagrancy and begging directly targeted Roma. From that time were proving ineffective at curbing the on the French authorities used only the There had been Roma in France since itinerant way of life. one term “nomads” to encompass Roma the 15th century, but they again came to In 1895 the government con- and “Gypsies” of all kinds. [Ill. 4] official notice only at the end of the 19th ducted a census of all itinerants. It recor- This new administrative catego- century. It was at this time that Roma ded more than 400,000 itinerant people, ry was subjected to multiple constraints. freed from slavery in the Principalities 25,000 of them “nomads” travelling as Every individual aged 13 and over was of Romania arrived in France and the groups in caravans. Faced with pressu- required to carry an “anthropometric re- rest of Western Europe. Many of these re from public opinion, the legislators cord card” containing the particulars of Roma joined the already sizeable num- worked from 1907 to 1912 to draft new the civil status, two photographs (side bers of itinerant people (other Roma, laws aimed at identifying itinerants and and full-face views), his fingerprints and seasonal workers, vagabonds, travelling tracking their movements. information on his physical characteris- merchants, beggars, vagrants) who ro- On July 16, 1912, the government tics. If he stopped in any district he had amed the French countryside in search enacted a law which particularly targe- to have his card stamped by a public of- of a better life during a period of econo- ted Roma, though it was addressed to all ficial, both on arrival and departure. The mic hardship. itinerants. The “Loi sur l’exercice des head of the family also had a group card The “Tsiganes” (“Gypsies”) professions ambulantes et la réglemen- showing the civil status of everyone were especially stigmatised. They were tation de la circulation des nomades” travelling with him. Vehicles carried a blamed for every conceivable crime – (Law on the Exercise of Travelling Oc- special registration plate. Records were thieving, pilfering, poaching, swindling, cupations and Control of the Movement now held on “nomads” in prefectures child abduction and even for spreading of Nomads) distinguishes three cate- and at the Ministry of Interior. The aut- disease. The press blew up these real gories of travelling people: “travelling horities knew who they were and could or supposed offences, helping to spread merchants”, “forains” (itinerant market track their movements. [Ill. 5] With the war, the vice tightened around the spies, they were gradually excluded from COMPULSORY RESIDENCE Roma. Along with communists and foreig- society and effectively banished. ORDERS FOR “NOMADS” ners, they were in effect the first French On October 22, 1939, a military IN THE THIRD REICH victims of the conflict. Suspected of being decree prohibited them from travelling in COUNCIL OF EUROPE ROMA | HISTORY PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA CHILDREN IN EUROPE INTERNMENT IN FRANCE 5.3 1940 - 1946 Ill. 4 “Law on the Exercise of Travelling Occupations and Control of the Movement of Nomads” “Regardless of nationality, all persons travelling in France who have no domicile or fixed abode and do not come into any of the categories stipulated above shall be deemed to be nomads, even if they have assets or claim to exercise an occupation. These nomads must Ill. 5 carry an anthropometric record card.” Anthropometric record card. (translated from the Official Journal of July 19, 1912) (from the archives of the Département Bouches-du-Rhône) eight “départements” of Western France public banned itinerants from travelling prefect then published a decree requi- and from making camp in two “départe- anywhere in metropolitan France for ring them to be resident in one or more ments” (Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire). the duration of the war and made them designated districts. As no budget had The military authorities invoked Article subject to compulsory residence orders. been adopted for implementing the de- 5 of the Law on the State of Siege which Officially, this measure was meant to re- cree, the “nomads” were allowed to dated from August 9, 1849, and had pre- duce the risks of espionage; unofficially move around within a specified radius viously been used during World War I to the aim was to force the “Tsiganes” to to find work and the means to provide justify interning the “Gypsies” in “clea- settle. [Ill. 3] for themselves. The invasion by Ger- rance camps” and “suspects’ camps”. The gendarmerie initially car- man troops in May 1940 prevented that On April 6, 1940, a legislative ried out a census of “nomads” carry- this decree was implemented country- decree issued by the president of the re- ing an anthropometric record card. The wide. at Argelès-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orien- 1941, the prefect of Hautes-Pyrénées INTERNMENT IN THE tales) by October 30, 1940. They were assembled all the “département” ’s “no- UNOCCUPIED ZONE then transferred to the camps at Barcarès mads” on the Lannemezan plateau, and and Rivesaltes and in November 1942 to then placed them in a ruined hospital gu- The Roma in Alsace-Lorraine, like the the camp at Saliers (Bouches-du-Rhône). arded by the gendarmerie. Jews, were expelled to the unoccup- [Ills. 6, 7] Between October 1940 and Au- ied zone where the Vichy Government In the rest of the unoccupied zone gust 1944 some 1,400 “nomads” were imposed compulsory residence orders compulsory residence orders remained interned in the two camps in the unoccu- (“assignations à residence”) on them or the norm.