Located in the Toulouse suburbs, the CAMP OF RECEBEDOU was created in July 1940 as reception centre for refugees and evacuated. It was arranged in hospital-camp in February 1941 and was planned for a manpower of 1,400 people.
It comprised 87 brick buildings and offered suitable living conditions to the internees.
Three houses had been arranged in infirmaries, one for the seriously sick men, one for the women and another for the tuberculous ones.
The camp was equipped with a purification plant and the disinfection was ensured by sulphurization of clothing and covers. There was moreover shower cabins and a cold storage for the conservation of the perishable goods.
Originaly, visits were authorized twice a week, on Thursday and Sunday, and some internees could obtain the authorization to go a few hours to TOULOUSE.
There was also at RECEBEDOU a special small area called “supervised camp" or “house of safety” intended for the undisciplined internees, some of them having been transferred to LE VERNET.
Letter of a Jewish internee dated 8-10-1941 being in the infirmary.
A similar but red seal has been found on a lettre dated 23 - 12 - 1941 for GENEVA.
Alas, as in NOE, this relative "comfort" worsened quickly in consequence of a lack of medical staff (2 doctors for 14,000 internees !), medical equipment and drugs as well as insufficient food. At the end of 1941, Rabbi KAPEL, coming from Mulhouse and charged to bring a material aid and moral to its co-religionists of south-west, submits an eloquent report on this subject:
"Actually, NOE and RECEBEDOU do not deserve to be called hospital-camp... I draw the attention to the infirmary 23 of the Camp at RECEBEDOU where approximately 35 patients are hungry and cold and live locked up almost without care in buildings which look like slum rather than infirmaries!"
There were at that time 739 internees with the Camp of RECEBEDOU of which more half are more than 60 years old and suffered from serious affections. During the winter 1941-1942, 118 Jewish internees will die in RECEBEDOU.
Letter from the hospital-camp headquarter dated 31-3-1942.
This lettre comes from the camp headquarter and is destinated to C.I.C.R. (International Red-Cross Commitee) at GENEVA (green label "FRANC DE PORT", i.e. free of charge). It has the rare red oval seal "MINISTERE DE L'INTERIEUR SURETE NATIONALE CAMP DE RECEBEDOU (Hte Gne) Le Directeur"
In August 1942, three convoys leaving DRANCY for AUSCHWITZ make state of 349 Jews coming from the Camp of RECEBEDOU.
In September 1943, the old internees or seriously patients will be transferred towards the old people's homes from the area. From this time, RECEBEDOU will not be regarded any more as hospital-camp.
02/01/2010