The Mérignac camp, also known as the Beaudésert camp, was located in Mérignac in the Gironde department, five kilometres west of Bordeaux, German-occupied France. The camp was created on 17 November 1940 on the orders of the German authorities (Feldkommandantur of Bordeaux). When it was created, the camp was specifically designed to intern so-called Nomades, in accordance with the internment order issued on 4 October 1940 by Hans Speidel (1897–1984), head of the military administration [Militärverwaltung] in occupied France. The Mérignac camp remained in operation until August 1944. It is estimated that around 360 ‘Nomades’ were interned at Mérignac between November 1940 and July 1943.
The Camp in 1940
All the people interned at Mérignac had been placed under enforced residence in May 1940, under the Third Republic, following the decree of 6 April 1940 banning ‘Nomades’ from moving around the country. In Gironde, this decree led the prefecture authorities to consider setting up a detention camp for ‘Nomades’ on land in Libourne. However, the project was abandoned due to opposition from the local council. On 19 April 1940, the prefecture carried out a general census of ‘Nomades’ in the department. It recorded around 300 people, all of whom were placed under enforced residence from 10 May 1940 in more than twenty localities.
From 1 July 1940, the Gironde was occupied by the German Wehrmacht. On 25 October 1940, the Bordeaux Feldkommandantur asked the Prefect to implement measures for the internment of ‘Nomades’. On 11 November 1940, the Mérignac camp was officially created to house all ‘Nomades’ in the department. Thirty gendarmes were requisitioned to guard the internees. On 27 November, the camp had 316 internees, including sixty-seven children under the age of five. Most of the internees were Sinti (Manouches), Roma and Travellers, all of French nationality.
In the weeks that followed, after a review of their applications and their reclassification from ‘Nomades’ to ‘showmen’ (Forains), several groups were released from the camp or returned to enforced residence; they comprised around 70 people in all. While the barracks were being built, a large number of people slept in their caravans, which they had been allowed to keep inside the camp.
Living conditions were very precarious. Access to water was limited, and there were no showers or sanitary facilities. Food supplies were unpredictable, and the food that did reach the camp was often spoiled. Cases of scabies and other infectious diseases appeared. The men were forced to do cleaning and clearing work. Furthermore, the camp authorities imposed humiliating compulsory physical exercise. From 1st December, all internees labelled as ‘Nomades’ were gradually transferred: around 140 were sent to the Poitiers camp and around 100 to the La Morellerie camp in Avrillé-les-Ponceaux (Indre-et-Loire). Most were then transferred to the Montreuil-Bellay camp.
Closure and Reopening
After the transfer of the so-called ‘Nomades’ in December 1940, the Mérignac camp closed its doors temporarily for a complete overhaul. Reopened in February 1941, Mérignac became the main place of internment in Gironde for arrested Jews, as well as Communists, Résistance fighters and political opponents, foreigners considered suspicious and people arrested for ‘black market’ offences in particular.
During 1941, the internment of ‘Nomades’ at Mérignac continued, affecting people who refused to be placed under enforced residence, people arrested during roundups by the French police or the German Wehrmacht, people transferred from other camps or places of detention or who had escaped from other internment camps. Between February 1941 and September 1941, around 50 so-called Nomades were interned at the Mérignac camp.
Between July and October 1941, a Jewish internee of Russian origin, Sonia Steinsapir (1912–1980), a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, produced several drawings of the Roma and Sinti internees at Mérignac. These drawings were later supplemented by a series of engravings and paintings, forming one of the rare graphic testimonies to the persecution of Roma and Sinti in France.
Among the ‘Nomades’ internees during this period were several groups from among the Sinti (Manouches) expelled from Alsace from autumn 1939 onwards. Other groups, notably Sinti (Manouches) and Kale (Gitanos), came from the neighbouring commune of Saint-Médard-en Jalles, where they had been under enforced residence since April 1940. Several single women who had escaped from other camps or from prisons or other places of detention were also interned during this period.
Among the interned ‘Nomades’ known by name are Laurent Visse (1912–unknown), a Sinto (Manouche), designated in the sources as a basket-maker, born in 1912 in Mareuil-sur-Belle in the Dordogne, and his wife Hélène Stephan (1922–unknown), born in La Rochelle in 1922, a Romani woman whose parents were born in Serbia and who is described in the sources as a bear trainer. With them was their young daughter, Adrienne Visse (1941–unknown), born in La Rochelle in January 1941. They were interned at Mérignac from 14 August to 13 September 1941, then transferred successively to La Morellerie, Montreuil-Bellay and Jargeau camps, from which they were not released until 18 May 1945.
All ‘Nomades’ interned after February 1941 were transferred to other detention camps, such as La Morellerie in Avrillé-les-Ponceaux (Indre-et-Loire) and Poitiers (Vienne), or other camps such as La Lande in Monts (Indre-et-Loire). ‘Nomades’ internees were present at Mérignac on individual occasions until July 1943.
Aftermath
The Résistance liberated the last internees from the Mérignac camp on 26 August 1944. The camp was subsequently used to intern collaborators and then for holding German prisoners of war. It was finally closed in 1946 and then completely dismantled.
On 25 November 1985, a commemorative stele was erected on the site of the former camp; however, it made no reference to the internment of Roma and Sinti. At an unknown date, the term ‘Tsiganes‘ was subsequently added to the inscription. On 24 April 2016, a new stele was inaugurated, explicitly mentioning ‘Tsiganes‘. No further details about their history of persecution are given.
