One of the largest transit centers for deportation in Western Europe
The Royallieu internment camp, located in Compiègne, 80 km north of Paris, was established during the Second World War within a military barracks in a district of the town: this camp was one of the largest transit centers in Western Europe for civilians destined for destruction by forced labor as part of Germany's policy of repressive deportation. When it opened in June 1941, it was designated as a “permanent concentration camp for active enemy elements” (Internierungslager) under the name “Frontstalag 122”, then quickly became a “police detention camp” (Polizeihaftlager) by the occupying German military administration, to which it was the only one in France to report directly.
Built in 1913 to house the 54th infantry regiment, the barracks site now comprises just three of the original twenty-four military pavilions.
The creation of a Memorial
In 2008, a Memorial was inaugurated on the site to preserve the memory of the victims of one of the worst tragedies of the 20th century, through a tour illustrated by numerous testimonies and documents presented using audiovisual technologies.
The entire site, including the garden, has been designed by architect Jean-Jacques Raynaud, with glass steles and talking chairs that evoke each stage of internment at Royallieu, as told by the internees themselves, from their arrival to their transfer to the Compiègne train station, from where they were deported to all the Nazi concentration and extermination camps in Germany and the occupied territories.
Around 50,000 men and women (political prisoners, resistance fighters, Jews, foreigners, etc.) passed through the camp, before being deported to Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Neuengamme, Mauthausen, Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück, along with their hundreds of kommandos, making it the largest internment and deportation camp in France after Drancy. Almost half the deportees never returned.
Practical information
Address
2 bis avenue des Martyrs de la Liberté
60200 Compiègne
Opening hours
Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 6pm
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 2pm to 6pm
Contacts
accueil@memorial-compiegne.fr
Tél. : +33 (0)3 44 96 37 00
