During the Second World War, the Special Brigades were a French police force specialising in tracking down "internal enemies" (ie French Resistance

French Resistance

The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

 workers), dissidents, escaped prisoners, Jews and those evading the STO

Service du travail obligatoire

The Service du travail obligatoire was the forced enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany in order to work as forced labour for the German war effort during World War II....

. It was dependent on the Direction centrale des Renseignements généraux

Direction centrale des renseignements généraux

The Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux , often called Renseignements Généraux , was the intelligence service of the French police, answerable to the Direction Générale de la Police Nationale , and, ultimately, the Ministry of the Interior...

 (RG) and worked in direct collaboration with the German civil, secret and military police, the Geheime Feldpolizei

Geheime Feldpolizei

The ' or GFP, was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of Second World War. These units were used to carry out plain-clothed security work in the field such as counter-espionage, counter sabotage, detection of treasonable activities, counter-propaganda and to provide...

. It was based in room 35 on the first floor of the Paris Prefecture of Police

Prefecture of Police

The Prefecture of Police , headed by the Prefect of Police , is an agency of the Government of France which provides the police force for the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne...

.

Brigade Spéciale N°2 (BS2) was known to commit torture.