Situated about 3km southwest of the city centre, the French military base of Royallieu was used as a Nazi transit and internment camp known as Frontstalag 122 from 1941 to 1944; three of the 24 original barracks now house a moving memorial museum.
The majority of the estimated 54,000 men, women and children held here – mainly political prisoners (especially communists) and résistants but also some 3000 Jews – were marched to Compiègne's train station for the trip east to concentration and extermination camps, including Auschwitz; more than half never returned. A special section with less harsh conditions housed 500 American civilians, interned as 'enemy aliens'.
