The NOMadeS database (https://murdesnomades.mmsh.fr) is a digital ‘wall of names’ [mur des noms] of people interned and/or placed in enforced residence [assignation à résidence] as ‘Nomades’ in France between 1939 and 1946.
It has been jointly designed by the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) [National Centre for Scientific Research] and the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme (MMSH) [Mediterranean House of Human Sciences], in partnership with the association Devoir de Mémoire – Aux Voyageurs Internés et leurs Enfants (DE-MAVIE) [Duty of Remembrance – To the Interned Travellers and their Children]. It has also received the support of associations for the defence of the rights of French Roma and Travellers. The project is being coordinated by anthropologist Lise Foisneau (b. 1990). Numerous survivors and their descendants are involved in collecting the information.
Aims of the Database
Launched on 6 December 2024, the NOMadeS database has as its mission to name the French victims of persecution and genocide of the Romani and Traveller communities, camp by camp for internment, department by department for enforced residence. It was created in response to an observation made by both descendants of so-called ‘Nomades’ and researchers: the absence of memorial lists of persecuted Roma, Manouches, Sinti, Gitans, Yenish and Travellers is detrimental to collective memory and historical knowledge. The aim is to find out how many people were affected by the persecution of ‘Nomades’, because more than 80 years after the events, there is still no answer to this question. The dates of birth are published alongside the names to facilitate the identification of individual persons. Places of birth are not mentioned for data protection reasons.
The first online lists were collected and compiled by Lise Foisneau and Valentin Merlin (b. 1990) as part of their research on persecution of so-called ‘Nomades’ in France during World War II, which led to the publication of the book Les Nomades face à la guerre (1939–1946) published in 2022. The lists have been reconstructed from documents produced by the Vichy administration and the German authorities and held in the 94 French departmental archives in metropolitan France.
Data Content
Founded on the principles of accessibility of research data and open science, NOMadeS is a collaborative database: the lists published online can be completed by individual contributions, which must be supported by archival sources and are reviewed and validated by researchers. In March 2025, the database covered 6,012 people in 25 detention camps [camps d’internement de nomades]. These numbers will change as the project progresses.
