Villa Ehret

Villa Ehret stands in Natzwiller, a small village in the Bas-Rhin department of Alsace, on grounds tied directly to the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

Where exactly is the villa located?

The house sits on the eastern edge of Alsace, in the foothills of the Vosges mountains, within the commune of Natzwiller. Its position mattered more than its size: built right by the camp's entrance and along the path linking the upper and lower sections of the site, it was practically pre-selected for the role it would later be forced into.

Who built it, and why?

A banker named Albert Ehret commissioned the house in 1911 as a private family residence. It was meant to be a summer retreat with a certain amount of prestige — removed from the pace of business life, yet close enough for its owner to keep an eye on regional affairs. The building still carries his surname, even though no member of the Ehret family had any connection to it after the outbreak of the Second World War.

What happened to the building during the war?

German authorities requisitioned the villa in 1941. Because of its location right at the entrance to the developing Natzweiler-Struthof camp, it was turned into the Kommandantur — the camp's command headquarters. This is the darkest turn in the villa's history: a family home converted into the administrative center of a site where thousands of prisoners were held.

What does the architecture look like?

The house follows a neo-regional style common across Alsace in the early twentieth century, mixing local building materials with decorative touches typical of upscale villas of that era. Its facades are clad in pressed sheet metal, while the walls are built from Vosges sandstone, a stone widely used in the region's construction. The villa rises two storeys.

Is there anything unusual around the building itself?

Beside the house sits a concrete swimming pool almost as large as the villa itself — a rectangular basin aligned east to west. It extends visually from the large ground-floor living-room windows, tying the interior and the grounds together in a single composition, a layout favored in prestigious residences of the period.

What can visitors actually see today?

Villa Ehret is now part of the memorial complex dedicated to the history of Natzweiler-Struthof. Visitors typically view it from the outside as one stop along the route through the former camp grounds — it helps explain the camp's layout and the presence of the German command structure right next to the site of imprisonment. It is a stop where two threads meet: the story of a wealthy banker's residence, and the darkest chapter of the region's history.

Frequently asked questions

Can visitors go inside Villa Ehret? The building is viewed mainly from the outside as part of the memorial site's visitor route, within the context of the former camp's history.

Why is it called Villa Ehret? After Albert Ehret, the banker for whom the house was built in 1911 as a private residence.

What role did the villa play during World War II? Following its requisition in 1941, it served as the Kommandantur, the command headquarters of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

What defines the building's architecture? A neo-regional style with pressed-sheet-metal facades, walls of Vosges sandstone, and a large swimming pool aligned with the ground-floor living room.