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France

Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean

Low
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

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Background

Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean is a former military camp near Boulay-Moselle in France. Totally abandoned today, it was used during World War II as a stalag (German POW camp). During the Cold War, Boulay and Ban-Saint-Jean were the site of one of two NATO secret bases named "Big Ears", dedicated to listening to radio communications from the East. Giant sophisticated antennas and the most modern radio communications systems were operated under the protection of the French Army's 718th company of transmissions. Hundreds of trained specialists scrutinised the radio signals to detect military manoeuvres from the East, triggering alerts as soon as any alarming message was detected and deciphered.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

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Current population

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Occupancy

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Year opened

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Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 22 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

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Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

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Region

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Security level

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Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

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Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

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Data completeness

16%

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Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean. Retrieved October 22, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/camp-du-ban-saint-jean
Chicago
"Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean." World Prisons. Accessed October 22, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/camp-du-ban-saint-jean.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-camp-du-ban-saint-jean,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Camp du Ban-Saint-Jean},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/camp-du-ban-saint-jean},
  urldate = {2026-10-22}
}