LAGHOUAT

Also known as the Nili camp, the Laghouat camp was established in the military barracks of the French sharpshooters (tirailleurs), located 329 kilometers (204 miles) south of Algiers. The camp was a prison for French colonial dissidents before World War II and served as an internment camp for British and Commonwealth servicemen between April 1941 and November 1942. The camp also held Canadian and South African prisoners, although the Vichy authorities called it the “camp for British internees Laghouat” (Camp des internés britanniques Laghouat).1 Because Vichy was officially neutral, the prisoners were given internee status. The camp was set up initially to hold some internees from the Djelfa camp, who were French “undesirables” (indisérables), more than 102 kilo-meters (over 63 miles) northeast of Laghouat. The Laghouat camp consisted of two buildings, one of which had an isolation cell for punishment. A triple barbed-wire fence surrounded the compound, and the guard towers were equ...