Schirmeck—the name is said to be derived from ‘protected place’ or ‘shielded corner’—is a small village in Lorraine, about 45 minutes by train from Strasbourg.
You’d hardly suspect it at a glance, but it has a long and significant history, located on the Bruche river and a route through the mountains, connecting Alsace to Lorraine…and not coincidentally sitting astride the trade routes linking Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Nürnberg.
In more modern times, it rose to a more troubling prominence. During World War II and the Nazi annexation of Lorraine, it was the site of both the Vorbrück internment camp, and Natzweiler-Struthof, the only Nazi concentration camp set up on French territory.
The Natzweiler site is now a memorial, dedicated to those who were deported and those who died there; across the valley, on another hillside, is the Alsace-Moselle Memorial Museum, which explores, briefly, the ancient history of the area and in detail its role in the events of three wars: the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, World War I and World War II.
