Tuilerie des Milles, ancien camp d'internement
MonumentHidden Treasure
A former tilery converted into an internment camp under the Vichy regime, Les Milles bears the memory of thousands of deportees and the clandestine works of Max Ernst and Hans Bellmer, now a listed historic monument.
History
In the heart of the Aix-en-Provence plain, the Camp des Milles Memorial Site occupies a former tile and brickyard whose tall chimneys and red brick vaults house one of the most poignant testimonies of the Second World War on French soil. A listed historic monument since 1993, the site is now the only major French internment and deportation camp still intact, and has been transformed into a space for museums and reflection on the mechanisms that led to mass crimes. What makes Les Milles absolutely unique in the French memorial panorama is the paradoxical and troubling coexistence between the brutality of an internment camp and the creative vitality of its prisoners. Within the very walls where thousands of refugees were crammed, world-renowned artists continued to paint, write and compose. The murals in the refectory, by Max Ernst and Hans Bellmer, are an exceptional artistic testimony, restored in 1994, in silent dialogue with the tragic history of the place. The visitor experience is both intellectual and deeply human. The industrial areas - tile kilns, workshops, refectory - have been carefully preserved in their original state, and the permanent collections combine authentic objects, photographic archives and digital devices to recreate the daily life of the internees, without ever becoming spectacular. An entire room is devoted to the psychological and social mechanisms that led to dehumanisation: a rare and salutary educational counterpoint. The setting itself contributes to the emotion: the raw industrial architecture - ochre bricks, metal beams, light filtered through high windows - lends the place a solemn, reflective atmosphere, far removed from any aseptic museography. Visitors rarely emerge indifferent from this head-on confrontation with one of the darkest pages in contemporary French history.
Architecture
The Milles tile factory is a typical industrial building from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, built entirely of clay brick, a material produced on site. The complex comprises several buildings organised around production functions: a Hoffmann-type continuous-firing kiln, large-volume dryers, shaping workshops and warehouses. The interior spaces are distinguished by their red brick barrel vaults, massive pillars and high ceilings that radiate a characteristic industrial light, now enhanced by contemporary museographic features. The factory chimneys, still rising above the site, are the most immediately identifiable visual feature of the site in the landscape of the Aix plain. The walls of the refectory, the central area of camp life, still feature murals painted by Max Ernst and Hans Bellmer between 1939 and 1940. Painted directly onto the plaster, combining surrealist figures, fantastical animals and dreamlike scenes, these in situ works constitute an unparalleled artistic and historical document. Covered in whitewash during the decades of post-war industrial exploitation, they were rediscovered and then carefully restored in 1994, revealing their ochre, brown and black palette, in perfect unintentional harmony with the raw material of the walls. The raw, unrestored architecture of the site has been deliberately preserved in its integrity to maintain the authenticity of the historical testimony.
Related Figures
Max Ernst — peintre surréaliste allemand, interné aux Milles en 1939-1940, auteur des peintures murales du réfectoireHans Bellmer — artiste et photographe allemand, interné aux Milles, co-auteur des fresques muralesWalter Benjamin — philosophe et essayiste allemand, de passage aux Milles avant sa mort en 1940Lion Feuchtwanger — romancier allemand antinazi, interné aux Milles et auteur de témoignages sur le campGurs et Drancy — étapes de la déportation vers lesquelles furent acheminés les internés des MillesLes quakers américains (American Friends Service Committee) — organisation humanitaire ayant tenté de secourir des internés et enfants en 1942
