Forcible Detention of Romani People in French Occupation, a Brief Recollection
In the tale of Valerie Leray, it all started with an eerie hush. In her family history, this deafening silence had long concealed the wartime tale of her paternal grandfather. It wasn't until 2004, nearly sixteen years post-grandfather's demise, that this 49-year-old photographer unearthed the truth about his internment at the Jargeau camp nestled in Loiret. This site was part of a vast network of over thirty camps where, between 1940 to 1946, thousands of Roma - or "nomads" as they were labeled - were confined and monitored.
Piqued by curiosity, Valerie Leray embarked on her photographic journey in 2006, documenting theTransformed relics of these camps. Her collection entitled A Forgotten Realm, reveals an astonishing juxtaposition between past and present. On the premises of the former camp in Jargeau, stands a college; meanwhile, in Mulsanne, Sarthe, a golf course occupies the site. As she puts it, "These non-places have practically retained the same perimeter, with a different function."
Scarcity defines the remnants of these camps. Even the Montreuil-Bellay camp - the largest of all - now only reveals a handful of concrete steps, foundations, and the remains of a prison cellar. Each year, an annual commemoration of this forgotten episode of French history takes place at this very spot, on April 26.
Although Valerie Leray's specific series "A Forgotten Realm" hasn't been explicitly addressed in the available documents, revisiting the annals of history sheds light on the Roma internment during WWII. With camps like the Montreuil-Bellay (though unspoken here), France imposed internment on the Roma across a network of over 30 sites. These captured souls faced deportation to extermination camps like Auschwitz, Buchenwald, or Ravensbrück.
Roma and Sinti were targeted due to racial ideologies that viewed them as undesirable. For example, the Liberec camp in a Czech context housed over 130 Roma from 1941–1943 and was later emptied for deportation. The fate of innocent children was particularly grim. In Auschwitz’s Zigeunerlager (Gypsy camp), thousands of Romani children met their untimely end.
Today, Roma groups in France strive for acknowledgment of the Holocaust-era genocide, using campaigns like #NosViesdeGitansComptent (Gypsy Lives Matter) to emphasize the systemic marginalization they still face. Sadly, acts of prejudice persist, as seen in the recent vandalism of Romani Holocaust memorials like the Liberec children's memorial (damaged with an axe in April 2025).
Projects like Leray’s likely resonate with these contemporary themes, capturing the haunting remnants of these camps and the stories silenced for far too long. The drive for recognition[1] and renewed interest in camp sites[2][3] suggests that her work breathes life into a dark chapter of WWII, making us confront our past and strive for progress.
- Valerie Leray's photographic journey in 2006 focused on documenting the transformed relics of the Roma internment camps in Loiret and Sarthe.
- Her collection, "A Forgotten Realm," reveals a striking contrast between the past and present, with colleges and golf courses occupying the sites of the former camps.
- Leray's work has been closely related to the political and cultural travel trend, shedding light on a forgotten episode in French history, the internment of Roma during WWII.
- Roma groups in France are pushing for acknowledgment of the Holocaust-era genocide and using campaigns like #NosViesdeGitansComptent to highlight the ongoing marginalization they face.
- Prejudice and acts of violence against Romani communities persist, as shown by the vandalism of the Liberec children's memorial in Czech with an axe in April 2025.
- Projects like Leray’s resonate with contemporary themes, capturing the haunting remnants of the camps and the stories that were silenced for too long, urging us to confront our past and strive for progress.
