The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

The Wehrmacht established Frontstalag 231 on July 20, 1940, and disbanded the camp on March 14, 1941. The unit received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 21 260 between April 28 and September 24, 1940. The number was struck between February 15 and July 30, 1942.

Frontstalag 231 held French prisoners of war. It was headquartered for a short time in Parthenay and then in the small town of Airvault (both map 1). In Airvault, the camp was located in the barracks formerly occupied by two divisions of Polish volunteers in a forest south of the town. Very little is known about this camp except that the site in Airvault was so unsanitary that the Germans decided to close it in early 1941. The prisoners, mostly North Africans, were transferred to Frontstalag 230 in Poitiers and Frontstalag 232 in Luçon. Inspections of these two camps in April 1941 specifically mention the prisoners from Airvault, who occupied the infirmaries in large numbers.¹