In Perigord, a dozen miles east of Bergerac, Mauzac opens its doors to the valley of the Dordogne. Historically, the economy of the town was turned, first, to River - with the extraction of sand and the serious, but also with the fishing - and, secondly, to agriculture. It was a haven of peace before that is decided, in the late thirties, the establishment of a national blowing, then a military prison.
early 1939. Despite a strong pacifist, the government decided to launch an extensive weapons program. Nearly a hundred hectares of land are so plain Mauzac requisitioned by the Ministry of Munitions and entrusted to the Central Service for Construction of Powders. A report classified "secret" of January 1940 reveals that the site should host a "Workshop for loading ammunition (shells special). This is, presumably, shells loaded with poison gas, chlorine-based. A major construction project is set up, employing hundreds of workers. Internment camps Southwest provide the workforce, made up mostly of Republicans who fled Franco's Spain. Temporarily housed in cattle cars parked near the station Mauzac, "the Spaniards" are involved in the construction their future quarters.
On September 3, 1939, France declared a "state of war with Germany. The Armistice of June 22, 1940 is a halt to the proposed creation of a powder in Mauzac.
What will he work already done? Actually very little: some concrete carcasses that disfigure the landscape, but above all, two quarters of a dozen huts each, called "Camp North" and "Camp South, two miles distant from each other. The first is located on the town of Lalinde, just outside the village of Sauveboeuf, Bugue road, the second between the side channel of Lalinde and the Dordogne, on the current joint-and-Mauzac Grand Castang. From August 29, 1940, the cantonment Mauzac are approached by the Minister of Interior for the accommodation of refugees evacuated from Alsace-Lorraine. September 28, Mauzac appears alongside Bergerac, Rocamadour, Saint Livrade ... on a list of "accommodation camps." Finally, October 16, 1940, telegram, Directorate General of National Security asked the prefect to take all measures of extreme urgency for the "immediate establishment of a camp near Bergerac French side. (...) Total number of internees to be two thousand. " By "undesirable" is defined as "dangerous people for national defense and public security" (decree of November 18, 1939) and those known to "Communist activity, terrorist or subversive" (Decree of 26 September 1939). The case is launched. 1 November 1940, the authority Sauveboeuf military landscape in the "North Camp," which became a place of confinement for inmates under its jurisdiction. The "South Camp", meanwhile, will remain for some time yet, from October 1940 to September 15, 1942, a camp of English workers belonging to the 652nd groups of foreign workers, but also Jews awaiting transfer to other GTE. Subsequently, the South Camp, with a capacity of 5 to 600 seats, will serve as "place of internment." Before the advancing German troops in Paris, the Vichy government decides the evacuation of prison health and to the Cherche-Midi South of France. On 24 June, inmates and guards finally arrive at Gurs (Basses-Pyrenees), sinister side.
In a letter dated November 23, 1940, the Prefect Maurice Labarthe said that "this camp currently holds 347 prisoners accused or at least 200 civilians sentenced by military tribunals as affected special. "They, the" Paris "of health and Cherche-Midi, who, after spending several months Gurs, have the sad privilege of inaugurating the new" Military Prison of Paris folded Mauzac, November 7, 1940.
Although this is a military prison, they all speak of Mauzac like a camp: "Internment Camp", "camp accommodation "or even" concentration camp ". Gilbert Renault, alias Colonel Rémy, Mauzac gives the following definition: "A concentration camp established by Vichy in the Dordogne. Was deported to Nazi camps that Vichy was the Reich without aping a scale whose cruelty itself was full of laziness. "
in October 1945, the Prefect of the Dordogne described, meanwhile, "a central prison in the country organized in the barracks of a former Vichy camp, surrounded by barbed wire and modeled on a Stalag. A report of the General Information February 15, 1943 the following picture: "The camp barracks were built on cement foundations, and slightly elevated.
They are perfectly local installed, lighted and ventilated satisfactorily [prefabricated hard-type "Adrian", 60 x 7 m, separated in the middle with a crawl space including washbasins with running water].
However, heating is limited, each hut large enough receiving only 8 kg of wood per day to feed a single stove. (...) On the other hand, an infirmary, briefly installed, there is the camp oven and a disinfectant.
Different work which prisoners are forced consist mainly clearing and planting of fifteen acres allocated to the Military Prison. Running a workshop for cutting straw hats. "
is the testimony of former detainees at the time Mauzac
Max Moulinier , sentenced in 1942 to 4 years prison and jailed in Mauzac (Badge 3553) explains: "We, the Communists, we were" in the foxhole " meeting by ten or a little more. All packages that arrived were placed in community. There was even a scale to weigh the bread ... The head of the hut it was gently. He had his ten plates, bowls over, and he distributed the package equally. Among the detainees known imprisoned at the military prison Mauzac include Louis de la Bardonnie, Gaullist, a native of Saint-Antoine-de-Breuilh, in the Dordogne. He arrived in Mauzac December 31, 1941 and the following account of his detention and that of his fellow prisoners: "We suffered badly in Mauzac. The cold and humidity were terrible. (...) We awoke in the morning at half past six. I wonder to what to do: we had no food, no work waiting for us. The call was out. It was six hundred prisoners that we were in total, forty-five Gaullists, Communists one hundred and eighty, and the rest made up of law in the lowest category. We nicknamed them the Armored Division. (...) Our misery was great, although we received a few packages, but what about Arsouilles Armored Division? They are literally dying of hunger (I saw die nineteen in the space of six weeks). They eat grass and trash artichokes. One day I saw the following scene: two "DB" watered the earth with a little water. One began to hit the ground with a stone. After a while, he let out a worm he caught a nimble movement, and presto! he swallows. Meanwhile, the other stood guard to prevent that the neighbors understand the earthworm. After that, his companion did the same. "
May 2, 1945, the military prison Mauzac ceases to exist as such: land and buildings come under control of the Ministry of Justice. Among the milestones in the detention facility Mauzac, we must mention the early sixties, the group of 255 "political" NAM (Algerian Nationalist Movement) Thirty-nine of them manage to escape on 6 November 1961. All are included.
Subsequently, the "camp Mauzac" becomes a prison in which are grouped conscientious objectors. From 1962 to 1970, 278 nut numbers assigned to them. 221 various objectors stay there. 56 of them are tried, convicted and imprisoned twice for the same reasons, "disobedience" and "insubordination."
camp north, site of the former military prison Mauzac, was used until 1970 to house relegated receiving a detention regime more liberal than the central prisons. With the abolition of relegation in 1970, closing the northeast side is decided. The south side still exists and has been partially restored. Inmates after serving their sentence are incarcerated. "
Today the term is taken to prison village as evidenced by the article by France Soir.
Sources: http://prisons-cherche-midi-mauzac.com;
http://www.francesoir.fr/divers/prison-mauzac-la-prison-village-en-pleine-campagne
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