Vernet of Ariège (camp of internment)

The Camp of Vernet of Ariège was used to gather the 12.000 Spanish combatants of Division Durruti since 1939, after the defeat of the Spanish Republic. With the declaration of the Second world war, the foreigners " indésirables" , the intellectuals antifascists, the members of the international Brigades interned in Vernet under terrible conditions described by the writer Arthur Koestler, itself interned In Vernet of October 1939 in January 1940 (" dregs of the ground "). In 1940, all the foreigners considered suspect or dangerous are interned for the law and order. From 1942, it is also used as camp of transit for the Jews stopped in the area. In June 1944, the last internees are evacuated and off-set with Dachau. On the whole approximately 40.000 people of 58 nationalities were interned in this camp, mainly of the men, but also of the women and the children.

The buildings of the camp do not exist any more, but the old station of the camp is at the edge of the Trunk road 20 in the north of Pamiers. On the rails one can see an old coach of train there, identical to those which transported the internees to the death camps. Inside, a plate identifies forty Jewish, old children and 2 to 17 years, which were off-set of Vernet with Auschwitz on September 1st, 1942.

To the village of Vernet a museum is devoted to the memory of this douleureuse and ashamed time.

See too

External bond

  • Ways of memory: Vernet of Ariège

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