Montluc Prison
At the time Germany occupied the French Free Zone in occupied France in November 1942, the Gestapo took over Montluc prison in Lyon. The Prison consisted of about 120 cells and in the courtyard the german’s had a wooden barrack built to house Jews. The Prison was mainly used as a transit for prisoners on their way to another camp. When French resistance leader Jean Moulin was arrested in June 1943, he was brought to Montluc together with other leaders of the French resistance movement. Moulin was interrogated and tortured before being transferred to Paris in early July. Jean Moulin died under unclear circumstances on a train between Paris and Metz on July 8, 1943. Until Lyon was liberated in August 1944, a total of about 15,000 people had been imprisoned, of which about 900 was murdered.
Current status: Preserved with museum (2012).
Address: Rue Jeanne Hachette, 69003 Lyon.
Get there: Metro to Garibaldi eller Sans Souci Station.
Follow up in books: Höhne, Heinz: The Order of the Death’s Head: The story of Hitler’s SS (1969).
The Male part of the prison was closed in the late nineties while the female part was closed as late as 2009. Paradoxically, the most famous prisoner in prison was the head of Lyon’s Gestapo, Klaus Barbie. Barbie spent a short time in cell 20 in 1983 before being sent to another prison in Lyon.