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Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château dans les Pyrénées-Orientales

Patrimoine classé
Vestiges de la Guerre 39-45
Camp de concentration
Patrimoine Juif
Pyrénées-Orientales

Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château

    D5
    66600 Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Camp de Rivesaltes de Salses-le-Château
Crédit photo : Yeza - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1900
2000
1935
Foundation of Camp Joffre
14 janvier 1941
Official opening of the civilian camp
22 novembre 1942
Closing of the accommodation centre
1962-1977
Harki transit camp
18 juillet 2000
Historical monument classification
16 octobre 2015
Inauguration of the Memorial
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Ilot F, with all its barracks (Case D 1229): inscription by order of 18 July 2000

Key figures

Serge Klarsfeld - History Documented deportations from Rivesaltes.
Rudy Ricciotti - Architect Designer of the Memorial inaugurated in 2015.
Christian Bourquin - President of the General Council Ported the site preservation project.
Anne Boitel - Historical Specialist of internment in Rivesaltes.
Abderahmen Moumen - History Studyed the passage of the Harkis to the camp.
Robert Badinter - Project sponsor Support for the Camp Memorial.

Origin and history

Camp Joffre, known as "Rivesaltes camp", was founded in 1935 as a 600-hectare military training centre on horseback between Rivesaltes and Salses-le-Château. Originally designed for the training of troops, it became in 1939 a transit place for Spanish refugees fleeing Francoism, then a camp internment under the Vichy regime (1941-1942), hosting up to 21,000 detainees, mainly Jews, Spaniards, Gypsies and political opponents. The families were separated, and the precarious living conditions were partially mitigated by associations such as the Cimade or the Red Cross.

During the Second World War, the camp also served as a base for German troops (1942-1944), then as a supervised residence centre for purification after the Liberation. From 1962 to 1977, it became a transit camp for the Harki and their families, with nearly 22,000 people passing through its facilities. The last families left in 1977. Between 1986 and 2007, the site will house an administrative detention centre for illegal immigrants, criticized for his conditions of detention.

Today, the Rivesaltes camp is a major memorial site, marked by the inauguration in 2015 of the Rivesaltes Camp Memorial. This memorial, designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti, pays tribute to the various internees and deportees, while preserving islet F, which has been a historic monument since 2000. Commemorative steles recall the fate of deported Jews, Spanish Republicans, Harkis and German prisoners of war, making this site a symbol of 20th-century human drama.

The camp was also a place for humanitarian action, with the presence of associations such as the Cimade, which helped interned children, organized escapes and influenced screening commissions to save lives. The camp archives, partially saved after a scandal in 1997, bear witness to its role in French history, from the internment of "undesirables" to the management of postcolonial migration.

The diversity of people who have passed through Rivesaltes — Spanish refugees, Jews, Gypsies, Harkis, prisoners of war — makes it a mirror of the political and social crises of contemporary France. Its classification as a historical monument and the creation of the memorial underline its importance in the preservation of collective memory, while questioning the mechanisms of exclusion and state repression.

External links