Obj. ID: 58180
Memorials Memorial for the Jewish victims of the Camp de Rivesaltes (Joffre Camp) in Rivesaltes, France, 1994
Memorial name:
No official name.
Who/What is Commemorated?
2,313 Jews deported from the Rivesaltes camp to Auschwitz.
Description
The monument is shaped like a boulder with a memorial plaque that bears the Magen David and a French inscription. The monument's territory is paved and fenced off by chains. On the left and right sides of the monument, there are two granite vessels for the flowers. At the foot of the monument, there is a square filled with stones and a metal structure featuring a depiction of the bird and likely serving as a pillar for the wreaths.
Inscription
On the plaque, in French
Des milliers de juifs étrangers
qui s'étaient réfugiés en France
furent arrêtés et internés en 1940
dans le Camp de Rivesaltes, en zone libre.
D'août à octobre 1942,
plus de 2250 d'entre eux,
dont 110 enfants,
furent livrès aux nazis en zone occupée
par l'autorité de fait, dite
"Gouvernement de l'Etat Français".
Dèportés dans le camp d'extermination d'Auschwitz
presque tous y furent assassinés
parce qu'il étaient nès juifs.
N'oublions jamais ces victimes
de la haine raciale et xénophobe.
Zakhor
Les fils et filles des déportés juifs de France
le 16 janvier 1994
- Premiére Commémoration Officielle
au Camp Joffre de Rivesaltes -
Translation: Thousands of foreign Jews / who had taken refuge in France / were arrested and interned in 1940 / at the Rivesaltes Camp, in the free zone. / From August to October 1942, / more than 2,250 of them, / including 110 children, / were handed over to the Nazis in the occupied zone / by the de facto authority, known as / the 'Government of the French State'." / Deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, / almost all of them were murdered / there because they were born Jewish. / Let us never forget these victims / of racial and xenophobic hatred. / Zakhor [Remember] / The Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France / January 16, 1994 / - First Official Commemoration / at Camp Joffre in Rivesaltes -
Commissioned by
The Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France.
sub-set tree: 
"The Rivesaltes camp, also known as ‘Camp Joffre’ after Joseph Joffre (1852–1931), a victorious French general of the First World War, was designed by the War Ministry in 1935, initially for military purposes. Throughout its construction, the French authorities faced logistical difficulties because of the violent weather peculiar to the Pyrénées-Orientales region. Located near the city of Perpignan, covering six square kilometres and comprising 150 barracks, built on a vast plain of scrubland and beaten by strong winds, this facility became an internment camp for civilian populations under the Vichy regime. In less than two years, a total of 17 500 people were interned at Rivesaltes; more than 9 000 Spaniards, 7 000 Jews and nearly 1 400 ‘Nomades’ passed through this camp between January 1941 and November 1942" [encyclopaedia-gsr.eu]. "In 1942, 2,500 Jewish prisoners were deported from Rivesaltes to the Drancy transit camp or directly to Auschwitz" [memorialmuseums.org].
The present monument, initiated by the association called "the Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France", commemorates the deportation of Jewish internees from Rivesaltes to Auschwitz [Wikipedia]. It was unveiled on January 16, 1994.
Today, the monument is a place of commemorative ceremonies.
Bohny-Reiter, Friedel, "Network of Internment Camps in the Pyrénées-Orientales", encyclopaedia-gsr.eu., https://encyclopaedia-gsr.eu/lemma/rivesaltes-en-1-0/?oes-language-switch=language1 (accessed October 20, 2025)
For the original image and history, see
Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_de_Rivesaltes#.
"Rivesaltes Memorial — Joffre Camp", memorialmuseums.org., https://www.memorialmuseums.org/memorialmuseum/gedenkstatte-rivesaltes-%E2%80%94-lager-joffre (accessed October 20, 2025)