Memorial du Camp de Rivesaltes

This camp was originally built in 1938 to house some of the 400,000 refugees that fled over the Spanish border at the end of the Spanish Civil War.  Under the Vichy Government it later became a camp to house "undesirables" and then a transit camp for jews who were then transported to Germany.  At the end of the war it became a POW camp for Germans and Austrians.  In 1962 it was reopened to house the Harkis refugees who were military auxiliaries who had to flee Algeria at the end of the Algerian War for Independence because they had been supporting the French.  Wandering around the museum what struck me was how similar the photos of the children were to the ones we see on TV and in the newspapers today.  Nothing changes