Nazi Labour Camps in Paris

Jean-Marc Dreyfus is an historian and Reader at the University of Manchester, UK. He is a specialist on the economic Aryanization during the Holocaust. His other topics of interest include the consequences of the Holocaust in European politics and diplomacy, the history of Alsace since 1870, and the history of the Jews in France. He is the co-editor of the Dictionnaire de la Shoah (Larousse 2009) and the editor of an Auschwitz memoir by Yvonne Redgis-Klug, Survivre. Souvenirs d’une rescapée d’Auschwitz (1945), (Larousse 2010).

“…[an] important, …well-documented and instructive monograph.” • H-France“In this well-written and expertly organized book, Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Sarah Gensburger skillfully chart the trajectories of three forced labor camps for Jewish prisoners in Occupied Paris… Because of the interest that it will have for scholars working on the difficulty of defining a Jew during the period of National Socialism and on memory studies, this book deserves to be read by a larger audience. Fortunately, the book’s excellent translation from the original French and its lucid and concise style makes it very readable. It will provide food for thought for the professional historian and a stimulating read for the non-specialist.” • French Politics, Culture & Society“Full of fascinating detail and admirably connecting the story of the Paris camps to larger developments in Nazi Europe, this important book could easily gain a wide audience, including university students, because it is well organized, ably translated, and easy to read. Moreover, its core chapters take the reader smoothly from why and how the camps were established, to what life was like for the inmates, and to a final section on the dismantling of the camps and their slide into obscurity (until recently).” • The Historian“An association of the camps’ survivors was created in the mid-1990s, after newspaper articles drew attention to the existence of a concentration camp near the site of the new French National Library. The association, whose goal is to retrace the history of these camps, invited Dreyfus and Gensburger to write an academically rigorous study. The result is a well-researched analysis that has helped bring Möbel Aktionand its labor camps into the public eye.” • German Studies Review“Given that the Germans destroyed virtually all records of [the camps] as they withdrew, the authors have done a remarkable job reconstituting the story. They also have explained the complicated story of how the memory of these events was almost lost, ignored by historians, distorted in commemorative plaques, and inaccurately recounted in fiction. Fortunately it is now available in this sophisticated, thoughtful, and authoritative account.” • Holocaust and Genocide Studies

• List of IllustrationsForewordDenise WeillIntroductionChapter 1. ‘Operation Furniture’Chapter 2. The Implementation of ‘Operation Furniture’Chapter 3. The Creation of the Parisian CampsChapter 4. Forced labour in ParisChapter 5. A place of fragile safetyChapter 6. Everyday lifeChapter 7. The end of the Parisian campsChapter 8. The Silence of HistoryConclusion: Around a Memory HoleAppendixReferences