独家优惠奖金 100% 高达 1 BTC + 180 免费旋转

Camp Joffre and French Colonial Troops

Installment 2 of: ‘The Making of the Modern Internment Regime.’

Since the eighteenth century, the French army had used Perpignan as a military base. Its location was perfect, especially for garrisoning colonial troops, because the camp was located about forty kilometers away from the port where African colonial troops would arrive. A railway was easily accessible, thereby enabling their transport in and out of the camp. (Husser, 2014, p.42) From the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of World War I, the four companies of the First Battalion of the Fifty-Third Infantry Regiment were quartered in the city of Rivesaltes. The Twenty Fourth Senegalese Riflemen’s Regiment of the Colonial Infantry were also living in Rivesaltes. In 1914, with the outbreak of WW1, Rivesaltes became a base for sending soldiers into battle. Recruits would prepare in Rivesaltes and then board a train at the Rivesaltes’ Train Station to go into active duty. However, the military wasn’t able to build barracks for these troops (an actual base) until the beginning of World War II. (Husser, 2014, p. 13)

Camp Joffre was originally intended to serve as a transit camp for indigenous troops. Husser explains, “The name ‘Transition Center for Colonial Indigenous Troops’ (CTTIC) appears for the first time in a memo from the Military Staff on December 12, 1939… and is officially created by ministerial decision on December 19, 1939” (2014, p. 33).

In winter 1939, Camp Joffre became known as “Camp Rivesaltes.” At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the mass exodus of Spanish Republicans nown as the ‘Retirada’ brought many refugees to France. They were housed in camps, including at Camp Rivesaltes. The Senegalese troops and North African ‘Spahis,’ or cavalry, were already in place and were tasked with guarding the refugees upon their arrival. France’s entry into World War II the following September, brought the need for more troops. Consequently, Camp Rivesaltes received a large number of colonial troops from North Africa. Here is a timeline of the movement of people in the camp during this time:

1939 (3 September). Twelve Senegalese Battalions were sent to Rivesaltes

1939 (December). Workers of the companies de travailleurs etrangers come to Rivesaltes from other camps

1940 (13 February). 3,000 Senegalese are gunners sent to Rivesaltes

With more troops being sent to Rivesaltes, the population of the camp grew significantly. Beyond the soldiers and the refugees, the camp received more doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and even two hundred and ten horses. By March 20, 1940 the population of Camp Rivesaltes had reached three thousand five hundred and forty-two. (Husser, 2014, p. 34)

France was defeated by Nazi Germany and signed an Armistice agreement with Hitler on June 22, 1940. Its democratically elected government fell, and a new, authoritarian, regime led by Marechal Petain governed from Vichy. According to the the armistice terms, its army was to be reduced to one hundred thousand troops. This meant that the majority of France’s soldiers had to be demobilized. One of the CTTIC’s main tasks was to help in the demobilization of troops, as July 1940. Of the eight thousand troops that were at Rivesaltes at the time, five thousand of them came from the occupied zone of France (Husser, 2014, p. 36). According to Beate Husser: a note from the Minister of War dated July 15, 1940, indicated that two-fifths of all active officers and non-commissioned officers of the colonial native soldiers were to go to Camp Rivesaltes (2014, p. 37). Other documents show that each battalion or group was located in a separate îlot — or section — of the camp.

After Germany defeated and occupied France at the beginning of World War II, the Vichy government used Camp Rivesaltes as an internment camp. On November 1, 1940, the Ministry of the Interior took charge of the camp, for the purpose of interning civilian populations deemed undesirable. (Husser, 2014, p. 38). The War Administration decided to keep one of the îlots, but the Ministry of Interior was granted the use of the rest. Under Vichy, Rivesaltes was to serve as a concentration and internment camp to house Jews and others who fled the Nazi Regime. Vichy’s refugee policy fueled anti-semitism and harsh treatment of foreign Jews and facilitated their extermination by concentrating them in camps like Rivesatles. (Maga, 1982, p.442).

France fought colonial wars in North-Africa, West-Africa, Madagascar, and Indochina, beginning around 1830 and continuing until the start of World War I. By 1914, France had acquired the second largest colonial empire in the world (the first was Great Britain) (Dean III, 2014). The French started to form a colonial army during these wars. The French named the colonial infantry “Tirallieurs,” which means “sharpshooters” in French and the colonial cavalry “Spahis” which means “horsemen” in Turkish (Dean III, 2014). According to Dean III, “Over 600,000 African, Asian, and other indigenous peoples of the French colonial empire served in the French Army in World War I” (2014).

North and West African soldiers served as both draftees and volunteers; however, most were draftees.

Many West Africans were upset by the fact that France forced the native male population into the military at the start of the war. They also resented the taxes levied to support the war effort. Consequently, there were many revolts in West Africa. The uprising in North Western Volta lasted around eight months and was only stopped when the Second Regiment of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais was sent in to stop it. (Dean III, 2014).

France did not begin to use colonial troops on the European continent until World War I. Until then, colonial troops had been stationed in their respective countries, typically. Prior to the Great War, France was skeptical of the colonial troops’ abilities, and the French military did not have a shortage of enlistees. However, by 1915, after heavy troop losses, the French military reevaluated its prior decision. According to Lunn, “the High Command authorized massive recruitment in West Africa, and, beginning in the summer of 1916, the new formations raised there were combined with pre-existing units and deployed in large numbers on the Western Front… French policy thus crystallized, and thereafter Senegalese troops were extensively used in France” (1999, p. 526).

In World War II, the French colonial troops played a larger role than in World War I. France’s colonial troops, notably the Senegalese, defended the borders of France in 1939. In 1940, following the defeat, Black African troops made up almost nine percent of the French Army within the state’s borders. (Echenberg, 1985, p.364).

Many also joined the Free French Army in opposition to Hitler and Petain. They joined many Spanish colonial troops who fought against Vichy and Germany during World War II. (Berdah, 2009, p.313). However, a substantial number of the Colonial African troops were captured as prisoners of war and sent to work camps located in German-occupied France. (Echenberg, 1985, p.372). Many were not were not even accorded the status of Prisoners of War.

Dean III, W.T. 2014, “The French Colonial Army and the Great War”, Historian, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 479–517.

Echenberg, M. 1985, “‘Morts Pour la France’; The African Soldier in France During the Second World War”, The Journal of African History, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 363–380.

Published Secondary Sources:

January 21, 2016 (Page A9 N) 2016, New York, United States New York, New York.

Berdah, J. 2008, “The Devil in France. The Tragedy of Spanish Republicans and French Policy after the Civil War (1936–1945)”, Discrimination and Tolerance in Historical Perspective, vol. 3, pp. 300–318.

Cate-Arries, F. 2004, Spanish culture behind barbed wire: memory and representation of the French concentration camps, 1939–1945, Bucknell University Press, Lewisburg; London.

Dean III, W.T. 2014, “The French Colonial Army and the Great War”, Historian, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 479–517.

Echenberg, M. 1985, “‘Morts Pour la France’; The African Soldier in France During the Second World War”, The Journal of African History, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 363–380.

Fabréguet, M. 2010, Histoire, Économie et Société, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 117–118.

Husser, B. 2014, Histoire du camp militaire Joffre de Rivesaltes, Lienart éditions, Paris.

Lebourg, N. 2011, “Le camp de Rivesaltes : bilan et perspectives d’un lieu d’ostracisme (1939–2007)”, Annales du Midi : revue archéologique, historique et philologique de la France méridionale, vol. 123, no. 275, pp. 409–424.

Lunn, J. 1999, “‘Les Races Guerrierès’: Racial Preconceptions in the French Military about West African Soldiers during the First World War”, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 517–536.

Maga, T.P. 1982, “Closing the Door: The French Government and Refugee Policy, 1933–1939”, French Historical Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 424–442.

Maghraoui, D. 1998, “Moroccan colonial soldiers: Between selective memory and collective memory”, Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 21–41.

Miller, J.E. 2013, “A Camp for Foreigners and “Aliens”: The Harkis’ Exile at the Rivesaltes Camp (1962–1964)”, French Politics, Culture & Society, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 21–44.

Miller, J.E. 2012, Algerian, French, refugees, repatriates, immigrants? Harki citizens in post-imperial France (1962–2005), The Pennsylvania State University.

Moumen, A. 2011, “Camp de Rivesaltes, camp de Saint-Maurice l’Ardoise: L’accueil et le reclassement des harkis en France (1962–1964)”, Les Temps Modernes, vol. n° 666, no. 5, pp. 105.

Wildman, S. 2007, Heads Up Rivesaltes, France, New York, N.Y., United States New York, N.Y., New York, N.Y.

Wilson, A. & Furlong, C.W. 1914, “Turcos and The Legion” in The World’s Work Second War Manual: The Conduct of the War, 1st edn, Garden City, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, pp. 35.

Photographic/Video/Audio Sources:

Bardon, S. 2017, Remembering France’s ‘camp of shame’ at Rivesaltes, France24, Youtube.

Camp de Rivesaltes, Salses-le-Chateau2018, [Homepage of Discover World], [Online] 2018.

Frankreich, Internierungslager Pithiviers. 1941. German Federal Archives, Pithiviers. In Wikimedia Commons.

French troops disembarking in Madagascar.1895. Musee de l’Armee, Madagascar. In Wikimedia Commons. 2007.

Gautier, S. CAMP DE RIVESALTES MEMORIAL. March 27, 2017. Alamy Stock Photo, Camp de Rivesaltes.

Kostyukov, D. The remains of barracks at the Rivesaltes internment camp. The New York Times, Camp de Rivesaltes. In The New York Times. January 20, 2016.

The Flag of the 43rd Battalion of Senegalese Riflemen decorated with fodder. 1918, Scan of L’ILLUSTRATION No 3906. In Wikimedia Commons.

Web Pages and links:

Add a comment

What is your view?

Send

Related posts:

Does Your cheap white sox jerseys Pass The Test? 7 Things You Can Improve On Today

Retrieval. 36 hours following the HGC shot will come retrieval. Timing is vital and while the health practitioner is retrieving the eggs, your partner would normally offer his sperm. The technique is…

Interested Challenge

I have studied Dale Carnegie’s book chapter “ Do this and you’ll be welcome anywhere’. In just start of this chapter I found some good things and some lines that I liked the most are ‘ You can make…

Fascism and Withdrawal

Russia is a totalitarian state, where some aspects of fascism are obvious. It’s a state with control of information, though that’s breaking down. It’s also a state where Vladimir Putin decided to…