As a one time student of history I have found it extremely difficult to get to grips with the history of my part of France for the last 80 odd years. WW2 and its afters are extremely obscure here, I decided that this was very likely because lots of the witnesses or their close descendants,were still alive. In various books written in English I would get some hints- That Jessica Mitford’s husband had spent some time in an internment camp in Argeles , that someone in the Haut Languedoc was involved in running Jews to Spain, mere hints but very little history. Last year Manuel Vals opened an important memorial in Rivesaltes which we visited this afternoon. Called Le Memorial it is the remains of an internment camp in Rivesaltes. When you arrive all you see is an area of ruined Nissan Huts, but underneath in a streamlined bunker is a magnificent museum devoted to refugees everywhere but particularly to the waves of refugees who were housed (some against their will) here. Republican Spaniards fleeing Franco, Jews and Gitanes interned by Nazi France,German prisoners of war, and finally Harkis from Algeria. Go there and see for yourself. I feel the corner of a veil has been lifted on a forbidden topic.