Twenty kilometers from Saumur, near the town of Montreuil-Bellay, in Maine-et-Loire, thousands of Gypsies were interned between November 1941 and January 1945. The "nomads", as they were called at the time , were first placed under house arrest before being locked up on the orders of the German authorities. The Montreuil-Bellay camp was the largest internment camp for nomads in France. More than half of the Gypsies interned in France passed through this camp. Families were interned there for 5 years until January 1945.