Placed under the authority of the Ministry for the Interior, Head office of the National security, the ESTABLISHMENT Of ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNMENT AT VALS-LES-BAINS was open in January 1941 for the internment of personalities considered as persons responsible of the defeat of 1940.

M. DU MOULIN DE LA BARTHETE, Principal private secretary of Marshal PETAIN, declared: “We were betrayed! The traitors should be punished”.

Initially, fifteen internees coming from PELLEVOISIN (Indre) arrived at AUBENAS (Ardeche) during the night of January 2, 1941 and were temporarily lodged at the Bellevue Hotel. Among them, Paul REYNAUD, Georges MANDEL, Vincent AURIOL, Jules MOCH, max DORMOY…

After ten workdays, the "Grand Hôtel des Bains", at VALS-LES-BAINS, was able to receive these internees.

Individual insulation was the rule: walks in enclosures divided into sectors and placed under high surveillance; doors of rooms permanently locked, internees been only able to leave them, under monitoring, for toilets use and for the walks in the enclosure.

In February 1941, some internees were released and others assigned to residence in March.

On May 5, 1941, only REYNAUD and MANDEL were still at the "Hotel des Bains". They were transferred a few days later at “La Châtaigneraie”, estate requisitioned at VALS-LES-BAINS, which was definitively closed at the end of November 1942.