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Gurs (Concentration camp) Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 2273

Scope and Content Note

This is a constructed collection of items related to the internment and concentration camps in France in operation during World War II. The bulk of the materials relate to the Gurs camp and stem from 1940-1942. Other camps mentioned are St. Cyprien and Vichy. Materials included are correspondence, photographs, personal accounts, lists of prisoners, a death certificate, clippings, reports and minutes of relief organizations, poems and songs, and reproductions (photographs, photocopies, and slides) of artwork depicting Gurs.

Dates

  • Creation: 1940-1989

Language of Materials

The collection is in English and German with a few items in French.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open to researchers.

Access Information

Readers may access the collection by visiting the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History. We recommend reserving the collection in advance; please visit the LBI Online Catalog and click on the "Request" button.

Historical Note

The Gurs internment and concentration camp was located outside of the village of Gurs in southern France about 50 miles from the Spanish border. Established in April of 1939, Gurs first held Spanish republicans fleeing Franco after the Spanish Civil War. These political prisoners were joined in 1940 by Jews from Germany and Austria as well as French political opponents of the Nazis. Aid organizations helped to release about 2,000 Jews between 1940 and 1942. Many of those who remained either died in Gurs as a result of harsh living conditions or were deported via transport camps to the extermination camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor. The Gurs camp was closed in November 1943 and then reopened in 1944 first to hold political prisoners of the Vichy government and then prisoners of war captured by the Allies. It was shut down completely by 1946.

During its operation from 1939-1940, the internment camp at St. Cyprien held refugees of the Spanish Civil War and Jews from the German Reich. In 1940, many detainees were transferred to Gurs.

References

Rutkowski, Adam. “Gurs.” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Israel Gutman, ed. New York: MacMillan, 1990.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Gurs.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 March 2013 from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005298.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet

Abstract

This is a constructed collection of items related to the internment and concentration camps in France in operation during World War II. The bulk of the materials relate to the Gurs camp and stem from 1940-1942. Other camps mentioned are St. Cyprien and Vichy. Materials include correspondence, photographs, personal accounts, lists of prisoners, a death certificate, clippings, reports and minutes of relief organizations, poems and songs, and reproductions (photographs, photocopies, and slides) of artwork depicting Gurs.

Arrangement

Materials in the collection were separated by document type. Folders are arranged chronologically by the earliest date of the items they hold.

Digitization Note

This collection was digitized and made accessible in its entirety.

Related Material

The LBI Archives holds the Gurs (Concentration camp) Clippings Collection as well as several collections of personal papers or memoirs that relate to the Gurs camp, including the following:

The LBI and YIVO libraries also hold several published works on the Gurs camp.

Yale University's Furtunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies contains videotapes of personal accounts about imprisonment in Gurs.

Separated Material

The original Karl Schwesig artworks and the artist's book Gurs 1941 by Liesel Felsenthal have been removed to the LBI Art and Objects Collection.

Processing Information

Duplicates were removed. Where necessary, photographs were placed in archival envelopes and brittle papers were placed in Mylar sleeves.

Title
Guide to the Gurs (Concentration camp) Collection 1940-1989 (bulk 1940-1942) AR 2273
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Leanora Lange
Date
© 2013
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Sponsor
Described, encoded, and digitized as part of the CJH Holocaust Resource Initiative, made possible by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany.

Revision Statements

  • January 2015: dao links and digitization information added by Leanora Lange.
  • July 2015: dao links to oversized material added and digitization note updated by Leanora Lange.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States