French, European leaders visit gas chamber to honor Jews, resistance fighters killed by Nazis

PARIS – French President Francois Hollande is holding a moment of remembrance inside a former gas chamber to honor Jews, Gypsies and French resistance fighters killed in the only Nazi concentration camp on French soil.

The ceremony scheduled Sunday afternoon at the Natzweiler-Struthof camp in Alsace is among events marking 70 years since the last Nazi camps were liberated by Allied troops in World War II.

Fighters resisting the Nazi occupation of France made up most of the around 50,000 inmates of the Natzweiler-Struthof camp. Nearly half the inmates died.

The Nazis also built and tested one of their first gas chambers at the camp. Hollande and European Parliament President Martin Schultz will visit the chamber and unveil plaques in memory of the Jews and Gypsies killed there.