Laghouat prison camp

From July 1940 until shortly after the Allied invasion of French North Africa on 8 November 1942, Laghouat was used as a de facto prisoner-of-war camp for British Empire and Commonwealth prisoners, mostly captured sailors and airmen.

[8] Another internee wrote to the Red Cross in Scotland from the Camp des internés britanniques Laghouat : "Technically we are not prisoners of war but up to the present have not been able to find a difference.

By chance, Admiral of the Fleet François Darlan, the de facto head of the Vichy government, was in Algiers at the time and quickly made a deal with the Allies, ordering all French personnel in North Africa to join forces with the British and the Americans.

[1] The interned servicemen were quickly freed by United States troops who arrived at the Laghouat camp with a convoy of trucks in November 1942.

[8] On 24 December 1942, Admiral Darlan was assassinated and was succeeded in his new command of French North and West Africa by Henri Giraud, who ordered the rounding up of a large number of residents, mostly Jews, and had them sent to Laghouat.