Built in the 1830s, Fort de Romainville was used as a Nazi concentration camp in World War II. From October 1940, the Fort held only female prisoners (resistants and hostages), who were jailed, executed or redirected to the camps.
From there, resistants and hostages were directed to the camps. 3,900 women and 3,100 men were interned before being deported to Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. 152 persons were executed by firing squad in the Fort itself. During the liberation of Paris in August 1944, many abandoned corpses were found in the Fort’s yard.