Mémorial National de la Prison de Montluc

Built in 1921 for use as a military prison, and was also used as such by the Vichy Regime from 1940 to 1943. Once all of France as occupied, the Gestapo used it as a prison, interrogation centre and internment camp for those waiting for transfer to concentration camps from January 1943 to 24 August 1944. It is estimated that over 10,000 men, women and children were imprisoned in Montluc, and over 900 of them were executed within it. In mid-August 1944, prisoners from Montluc were taken to Bron Airfield where 109 of them, including 72 Jews, were killed in what would become known as Le Charnier de Bron "The Charnel house of Bro"). Montluc was liberated on 24 August 1944 by FFI troops, when resistance leader Colonel Köenig, profiting from the chaos reigning in Lyon at the time, entered the prison in a stolen German Army car disguised as a Gestapo officer and persuaded the Commandant to free the prisoners, saying that the order had come from the Gestapo Commander in Lyon, Klaus Barbie. In 1947, Montluc became a civil prison once again, finally closing in 1997, though the female maison d'arrêt was not closed until May 2009.