France · Gurs
Gurs internment camp
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Gurs internment camp
Step-by-step guidance using the France system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Gallery
From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

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

Photo by Horst Rosenthal via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Photo by AnRo0002 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

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

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

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

Photo by Sarang via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Photo by Fotograf unbekannt / Fotographer unknown via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Background
Gurs internment camp (French: Camp de Gurs, pronounced [kÉÌ dÉ É¡yÊs]) 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 Morgenstern1886–1940 · 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 Reichel1892–1958 · painter
- Julius StrauÃ1875–1942 · pediatrician
Lisa Fittko1909–2005 · writerLisa Fittko (born Elizabeth Eckstein, Hungarian: Eckstein (Ekstein) Erzsébet; 1909 â March 12, 2005) helped many escape from Nazi-occupied France during World War II.
- Max Seligmann1882
- Léo Ansbacher1907–1998 · rabbi
- Eberhard Schmidt1907–1996 · musician
- Marcelino Bilbao Bilbao1920–2014 · military personnel
Marcelino Bilbao Bilbao (14 January 1920 â 25 January 2014) was a Basque anarchist, Spanish Civil War veteran and Holocaust survivor.
Matéo Maximoff1917–1999 · writerMatéo Maximoff (French pronunciation: [mateo maksimÉf]; 17 January 1917 â 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
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
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Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
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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
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q708638)
- Wikipedia
- Wikimedia Commons
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Gurs internment camp. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gurs-internment-camp
"Gurs internment camp." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gurs-internment-camp.
@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}
}