# Merignac internment camp

The Mérignac internment camp, also known as the Beaudésert-Mérignac internment camp, was a World War II internment and transit camp in German-occupied France, operational from 1940 to 1944. Located in the district of Beaudésert in the commune of Mérignac, near Bordeaux, it was used to detain Roma, Jews, political prisoners, and members of the French Resistance before deportation to concentration camps or execution.

## History
### Establishment and early use

In 1938, the government of Édouard Daladier enacted a decree establishing detention centres for "undesirable foreigners". The following year, as over 450,000 Spanish Republicans fled across the French border to escape the Spanish Civil War, French prefectural authorities repurposed a former laundry in the Beaudésert district, near Mérignac, in southwestern France, as one of many sites designated to house refugees.
After the Fall of France in 1940, the German authorities briefly used the facility as a prison before converting it into an internment camp. On 17 November 1940, under orders from the Bordeaux German Field Command, François-Pierre Alype, the prefect of Gironde, oversaw the internment of Roma detainees, including children. The camp, designated a confinement centre (camp de séjour surveillé), comprised a wooden barrack, a former hospital laundry building, and 30 caravans serving as temporary accommodations. The facility was enclosed by a barbed-wire perimeter, with French gendarmerie assigned to oversee security under the direction of René Rousseau, the camp's appointed administrator. By December 1940, internees had constructed 20 barracks. Between 297 and 321 individuals, more than half of whom were children were detained until 1 December 1940, when German authorities ordered its closure and transferred the detainees, most notably to the Poitiers camp.

### Expansion of internments

Following the relocation of Roma detainees, the Vichy Ministry of the Interior approved funding for the Gironde prefecture to develop the site into a permanent confinement centre. Under the prefect's direction, the departmental architect redesigned the facility, dividing it into two separate sections: one designated for political prisoners and the other for foreign nationals classified as undesirable.
Due to the increasing number of arrests, particularly those associated with communist activities, detainees were initially held at the Hôtel des Migrants in Bordeaux before being transferred to Mérignac. On 13 March 1941, individuals detained at this temporary site were relocated to Mérignac, with communist detainees arriving a week later. This resulted in a formal division of the camp into two sections: the political detainee section, managed by the prefect's office and the foreign detainee section, administered by the Foreigners Service.
The internment population expanded further by April 1941, when foreign Jews and prostitutes were detained at the camp. Jewish internees, arrested in Nazi roundups, were temporarily held before their transfer to the Drancy internment camp from where they were deported to Nazi extermination camps and, for most of them, murdered. Within Mérignac, Jewish detainees were segregated from other prisoners. In June 1941, 40 members of the French Resistance were arrested following a sabotage attack in Pessac. Initially imprisoned at Fort du Hâ, they were later transferred to Mérignac.

### Executions and deportations

The German authorities regularly selected detainees for execution in retaliation for anti-German resistance activities. On 24 October 1941, 50 hostages were shot in Camp de Souge after an attack on German personnel in Bordeaux three days earlier. Among them, 35 victims were from Mérignac. In September 1942, an additional 70 internees were executed in Souge. This mass execution was ordered in retaliation for the assassination of German military adviser (Kriegsverwaltungsrat) Hans Gottfried Reimers by the French Resistance in Bordeaux. The executions were overseen by SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Hagen. In September 1942, another 70 internees from Mérignac were executed at Souge.
Between July 1942 and June 1943, multiple convoys transported Jewish internees from Mérignac to Drancy, from where they were sent to Nazi extermination camps to be murdered:
* 18 July 1942: 171 deportees
* 26 August 1942: 444 deportees, including 57 children
* 19 October 1942: 173 deportees
* February–June 1943: An additional 107 Jews were deported
By December 1943, no Jewish prisoners remained in the camp. Deportations from the Gironde continued until June 1944, under the direction of Maurice Papon, the prefect appointed in June 1942.

### Liberation

On 26 August 1944, as German forces withdrew from Bordeaux, the French Forces of the Interior (Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur) liberated the Mérignac internment camp. The remaining detainees, imprisoned under the policies of the Vichy regime, were released. Following the liberation, the site remained operational under the authority of the new French administration, playing a significant role in the process of épuration (purge). Former detainees, including those incarcerated before the Liberation and individuals facing judicial proceedings, continued to be held at the facility alongside newly interned individuals.
The camp's new population included suspected collaborators, members of the Milice, German civilians, and a significant number of women. Those interned under the new administration were subject to stricter regulations. By September 1944, the facility became overcrowded, holding up to 900 internees, including both men and women. From 15 October 1944, a significant number of women were transferred to the camp under orders from the French administration. They were subsequently relocated to Eysines, a satellite annex of the Mérignac camp. Among the internees were female collaborators, women married to German soldiers, German nationals, prostitutes, and others who had served the occupying forces.

### Post liberation and closure

On 10 May 1946, a legal decree officially marked the cessation of hostilities, leading to the end of administrative internment. The camp was repurposed as a temporary detention centre for foreign nationals who had entered France illegally. It was subsequently designated as a regional immigration centre, primarily housing political refugees, the majority of whom were Spanish nationals. The camp was officially closed on 15 May 1948.
Despite its official closure, the site continued to house unauthorised occupants, with families settling in the abandoned barracks. By 1953, approximately 200 individuals were residing there under rudimentary living conditions. By the late 1950s, the last remaining structures of the camp were dismantled, and the site was repurposed as a quarry.

## Notable inmates

* Louis de La Bardonnie – Member of the French Resistance
* Robert Aron – French historian and writer