Controversy: The Concentration Camp of Montreuil-Bellay This case is illustrated by three articles in a local newspaper and several of my photographs.
Click above to enlarge. 
in Montreuil-Bellay, it was a concentration camp. (header a command to an individual for a supply of apples-to-earth at the camp. Private Archives.)
Following what can only be called my "invention" in 1980 from the former camp concentration that has occurred in my town during the Second World War, and various publications during past thirty years, exchanging pleasantries made these days the joy of the regional press. I repeat here the articles published this first half of January. To you give you an opinion, it reinforces the mood of the city fathers Montreuillais or she encourages me to continue my work.
Courier West , Monday, January 3, 2011, made the camp a landmark event in the late 2010. The same evening, not one word on the subject over the wishes of the mayor of the town's citizens.
Three days later, the newspaper published the full ticket mood I sent him:
The mayor says the following Thursday:
recalled two courtesies of the former mayor talking about me, even published in the local press (from memory before returning items):
- ...
individual who exploits the Gypsies to sell a few centimeters of paper. -
this so-called historian. To be a historian, he must have studied and have degrees. Where we see that the tone is the same with the new mayor ... In
smile if I take the second. "Supposedly" would mean that I tell myself while historian I am always very happy to introduce myself as a former teacher. Think about this same strange expression that says:
this so-called death ...
With some opportunity, that same Thursday 13 Jan r
Courier West published six pages further on these lines in the section
Men / Women :
Very pleased with this controversial, since it is especially important to me that we talk about this site in danger, and read the response from the mayor
"that the camp should remain a place of memory and recollection" is a sweet thing.
Fun clear identification of any individual camp
she tells me, but perhaps she had preferred to write any individual
; surprising to read that the only recognition of any individual replaces knowledge of the camp .
Beyond the fruitful polemic between persons not anonymous, a few reminders:
Trivia are said "kindness" on me, the same tone - like, weird, weird ... - Those that already read in the press [
This individual who exploits the Gypsies to sell a few centimeters of paper ] or [...
this so-called historian, a historian, he must have studied and have degrees ] while I've always said
teacher.
We would be remiss Montreuillais criticize, saying the leaders of this camp, I never did. In this article Email
, I even voluntarily censored, failing to write as if they were in 2011, the right to forget this camp - the mayor even wrote that the page is
tour today - this camp was occasionally some during the war, the purpose of their Sunday walk. One family was even reported that harnessed the cart after the meal, we it placed the children and they were going for a ride Loudon Road to see if there were any new ones. And as the camp was seven miles, it passed the afternoon. It is true that distractions were rare at the time, and there was no television.
Positive - Complicity and the precious companion editions
Wallada , http://www.wallada.fr/nouveautes-2009-2010.html who first while the subject bothered, accepted to publish my work on this camp, and who have always been followed by new editions.
- The official recognition of the camp of Montreuil-Bellay in which France has interned - among others - Gypsies during the Second World War. The erection of a monument on the site January 16, 1988. The organization on the same site from April 1990, a national ceremony and annual tribute to Gypsy victims of the Second World War.
- The telegram sent to me by Simone Veil, 15 January 1988, the eve of the inauguration of the monument:
- The discovery and study of other similar camps in French territory and taken over in recent years, by young historians.
- Erection other stelae at other sites (Merignac, Arc-et-Senans, Poitiers, Avrillé les Culverts, Saliers, Barenton ...).
- Recognition for Gypsies, who were interned and, following the creation of records, many have received a card from political internee (sic) that allows them to receive a pension compensation.
- Several children have contacted me to learn the history of their families, mostly grandchildren of internees, and then together we can reconstruct the routes.
- In 1983, Jean-Louis Bauer, said Poulouche, wrote to me after discovering my work on the camp of Montreuil-Bellay in which he was interned with his family after those MĂ©rignac and Poitiers, and before that Jargeau. From 1983 to 2007, the year of his death, we worked together. In 2010, the city of Poitiers has given his name to an alley near the former camp.
- The creation in 2005 of an association, The AMCT (Friends of the Memory of the Gypsy Camp de Montreuil-Bellay).
- July 8, 2010, in full chase Roma and Gypsies by vassals of the Elysee, the inscription of historical heritage sites.
The negative
- The refusal by the authorities requested, to support financially the cost of the monument erected in January 1988: Support slate was offered by a roofer Montreuil-Bellay, the purchase of plaque and engraving of text have been borne by private individuals.
- The disappearance
unnecessarily , important remains (in the late 1990's the only building left standing on the spot shortly afterwards, columns of the old guard).
The only building left on site after the sale auctioned by Fields in October 1946 has now disappeared. 
The columns of the old guard, facing the entrance of the camp, Panreux side, now extinct. - Other remains protected today, would have suffered the same fate if the warning had been given had been decided when the construction of a roundabout at the junction of two roads Montreuil / Loudun and Meron / Panreux. Following targeted mailings, the roundabout has been diverted, then apparently deprogrammed.
- The refusal after application, removing some billboards "tendentious" located on the site of the camp. Only reminders in the media seem to have caused their disappearance.
- When almost all colleges and high schools in nearby towns of Montreuil-Bellay, to mention only the latter, invited me to one or more times evoke the history of this camp, I was never in the walls of the College of Montreuil. For cons, I was regularly by the Agricultural College, but students come to most of the outside. Thus, during my last speech, there was not one of the township.
- The ingratitude of some that I helped sometimes for years, their share everything I knew about this history, stories and iconography, and that their work is done, break off and disappear with the profits .. .
In conclusion This conversation, during a working meeting in the sub-prefecture of Saumur in June 2008, was reported to me by someone who asked me, saw his duty reserve, not to mention his name. It is close enough from what I have often heard for the true thinking.
Response subprefect following a suggestion by the former mayor of Montreuil-Bellay, very embarrassed by my work on the camp, as saying that I was a pseudo historian
He made a real historical work, worthy of an academic work and has the merit to exist. Without him we would not be here today.
Built in 1935 at Graville, She Was Used in North Sea, Dyck has place. Located off Le Havre from 1948 to 1981. Then removed and transferred is to Le Havre Museum. 
