On May 1st 1941, the Nazis opened the KL-Natzweiler concentration camp in a place called Struthof, which used to be a ski resort in the Vosges. Nearly 52,000 people from all over Europe were deported to this camp or to one of its annexes. 22,000 of them never returned. They had a gas-chamber, but it was not located directly on the site. The Nazis led medical research on the deportees. On November 23rd 1944, Allied Forces discovered the site, which had been abandoned by the Nazis in September.
For over 50 years, the minister of war-veterans, with the council of an advisory committee composed for ex-deportees, resistance fighters and prisoners, has been in charge of the care and conservation of the camp, and the honouring of its victims. In 1954, the barracks falling into ruin were destroyed, and 4 others conserved. The Memorial to the “Martyrs and Heroes of Deportation”, as well as the national necropolis, was inaugurated on July 23rd 1960 by the President of the French Republic, General Charles de Gaulle.
www.struthof.fr