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France · Gurs

Gurs internment camp

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Photograph of Gurs internment camp

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Camp de Gurs panneau mémoriel 1980.jpg

    Photo by Claude Truong-Ngoc via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Horst Rosenthal Petit guide 2 Visitez Gurs.jpg

    Photo by Horst Rosenthal via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • 20110506Gedenkstein Gurs Hockenheim.jpg

    Photo by AnRo0002 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

  • Band der Erinnerung (Saarbrücken) 22-09-29 (05).jpg

    Photo by Simon Mannweiler via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Camp de Gurs Plan.jpg

    Photo by Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Dimitrije Koturović i Slavko Čolić u logoru Girs.jpg

    Photo by Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Synagoge Eberbach 7.jpg

    Photo by Sarang via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Elsbeth Kasser (1942).jpg

    Photo by Fotograf unbekannt / Fotographer unknown via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Background

Gurs internment camp (French: Camp de Gurs, pronounced [kɑ̃ də ɡyʁs]) was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at the end of the Spanish Civil War to control those who fled Spain out of fear of retaliation from Francisco Franco's regime. At the start of World War II, the French government interned 4,000 German Jews as "enemy aliens", along with French socialist political leaders and those who opposed the war with Germany. After the Vichy government signed an armistice with the Nazis in 1940, it became an internment camp for mainly German Jews, as well as people considered dangerous by the government. After France's liberation, Gurs housed German prisoners of war and French collaborators.

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 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

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Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

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Region

Gurs

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

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Josef Morgenstern
    1886–1940 · businessperson

    Josef Morgenstern (born 6 June 1886 in Kis-Szlatina, Hungary; died after September 1942 in Auschwitz) was a Jewish art collector who was murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust.

  • Hans Reichel
    1892–1958 · painter
  • Julius Strauß
    1875–1942 · pediatrician
  • Lisa Fittko
    Lisa Fittko
    1909–2005 · writer

    Lisa Fittko (born Elizabeth Eckstein, Hungarian: Eckstein (Ekstein) Erzsébet; 1909 – March 12, 2005) helped many escape from Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

  • Léo Ansbacher
    1907–1998 · rabbi
  • Eberhard Schmidt
    1907–1996 · musician
  • Marcelino Bilbao Bilbao
    1920–2014 · military personnel

    Marcelino Bilbao Bilbao (14 January 1920 – 25 January 2014) was a Basque anarchist, Spanish Civil War veteran and Holocaust survivor.

  • Matéo Maximoff
    Matéo Maximoff
    1917–1999 · writer

    Matéo Maximoff (French pronunciation: [mateo maksimɔf]; 17 January 1917 – 24 November 1999) was a French writer and Evangelical pastor of Romani ethnicity.

Showing 9 of 12. Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

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Related facilities

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Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

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). Gurs internment camp. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gurs-internment-camp
Chicago
"Gurs internment camp." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gurs-internment-camp.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-gurs-internment-camp,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Gurs internment camp},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gurs-internment-camp},
  urldate = {2026-10-20}
}