Natzweiler-Struthof was a German-run concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France, and the town of Schirmeck, about 50 km (31 mi) south west from the city of Strasbourg. Natzweiler-Struthof was the only concentration camp established by the Nazis on present-day French territory, though there were French-run temporary camps such as the one at Drancy. At the time from 1941 to 1944, the Alsace area in which it was established was administered by Germany as it was an integral part of the German Reich. The camp operated from May 21, 1941 to early September 1944 with prisoners. A small staff of Nazi SS remained, found when the camp was liberated by US soldiers on November 23, 1944, the first camp to be liberated.