What is it about?
This paper descibes the forgotten camp of Polo Beyris, which held Spanish refugees, French and German POW's and suspected collaborators. The only major camp on the Basque coast, it was both similar to and differed from other internment camps in France between 1939-1947.
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Why is it important?
The camp of Polo Beyris was dismantled and literally forgotten, the local population unaware of its existence prior to 2011. Despite its size and significance, it has drawn almost no attention from historians of the period. It adds to our increasingly nuanced understanding of the nature of internment in the 20th century.
Perspectives
I hope that this article both sheds light on Polo Beyris and demonstrates that camps not directly tied to the Holocaust were nevertheless the scene of much suffering and misery, As historians futher exlore the phenomenon of internment and captivity, it will be important to consider camps like Polo Beyris.
John GUSE
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Polo Beyris: A Forgotten Internment Camp in France, 1939–47, Journal of Contemporary History, February 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0022009417712113.
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