At the Mémorial de la Shoah, I was blown away by the amount of Jewish history within France's own history. I cannot remember many details, dates, or names, but I was shocked by the history of the Jewish people within France. Within the museum, plaques explained the progress of Jews within the country, and the cyclical process of their arrival, integration, persecution, removal, and reimmigration from what I assume never fully felt like a "pays d'origine" for French jews. The first of these plaques described Jews as coming initially from "Palestine" in the 4th century. I later talked to my friend Arik about this. Arik is on my program. He is of Spanish Jewish descent and is doing his "Paris par thème" project on anti-semitism within France. He found it interesting that unlike other museums he has visited, this one did not deny that the Jews came from around Israel, and not "poof" from some unknown, unnamed land. What I found interesting was that, like I mentioned above, Jews in France are not a newly established group. Though many left and returned after World War II, they are not immigrants from a few generations back.
I also found it very touching that my friends, who are not Jewish but Catholics, Atheists, and I don't even know what other religions, were willing to come to the museum with me. They were very respectful and did not rush me at all. They also seemed interested in it all, and seemd to understand that visiting this was important to me. When we could not find it at first, they persistently scanned maps and asked strangers for directions.
Outside the museum lists of names were carved into walls similar to those at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. The wall was tan though, instead of black, and the walls were far too high to see to the top of.
A plaque in the courtyard explained the inscriptions. If you click on the picture and then click again to magnify, you can read what it says.
This interesting quote is on the website of the memorial(http://www.memorialdelashoah.org/b_content/getContentFromNumLinkAction.do?itemId=487&type=1):
Why and how should the Shoah be "taught" in the 21st century? Such issues are at the heart of the Memorial's mission, at the heart of the work of the historians, researchers and educators who come together here to be a source of inspiration open to all, ready to welcome the new generations.
The Memorial is a resource center, the first and foremost collection of archives on the Shoah in Europe, but it is also a "museum of vigilance", designed to learn, understand and experience, because now and forever it will always be necessary to construct "a rampart against oblivion, against a rekindling of hatred and contempt for man", to quote Eric de Rothschild, President of the Memorial.
The Memorial is a resource center, the first and foremost collection of archives on the Shoah in Europe, but it is also a "museum of vigilance", designed to learn, understand and experience, because now and forever it will always be necessary to construct "a rampart against oblivion, against a rekindling of hatred and contempt for man", to quote Eric de Rothschild, President of the Memorial.
It made me angry and sad to read about the persecution of French jews, and of how the Vichy Government turned on the Jews of its country and allowed the Nazi occupation to kidnap, condemn, and kill so many of France's contributing citizens. However, I also found the museum inspiring. There where many stories and accounts of people or groups who had helped contribute to the end of war, or who had helped individuals escape its atrocity. Even in times of cruelty and suffering, there are always those who can resist prejudice and instead find the humanity within themselves and use it to help others who are losing their own humanity and rights.
A few interesting facts or shocking figures I jotted down in my little notebook while going through the museum:
-Between 1940 and 1944 76,000 Jews in France were deported and killed, 11,000 of whom were children
-In Josefow, dozens of Nazi guards refused orders and were not punished. This proves that it was possible to refuse, and they were not just "following orders" under some sort of penalty.
-33,771 Jews were killed in 2 days in Babi Yar (September 29 and 30, 1941)
-Max Nordau, one of Herzl's first Zionist converts, was an important member of "Mevaseret Zion," a Paris Zionist Group, and an interesting person. (Learn more here: http://www.herzel.org/english/Article.aspx?Item=531)
-Between 1906 and 1939, 15% of immigrants into France were Jewish
-LICA (Lexington Interfaith Clergy Association) (http://pluralism.org/profiles/view/73000)
This is so interesting. When I studied in France, my French language teacher, Mme. Ripoche, took a few days off and went out of town. When she came back, she seemed kind of shaken up, and told us where she had been. She said she is Jewish and grew up in Paris. During the war, when she was a little girl, her parents smuggled her sister and her out of the city to stay safely with a Catholic family living on a farm in the countryside. They lay in the bottom of a wagon with a false floor over them as they moved through the checkpoints and out of the city. I think she says they were reunited with her parents after the war, but I'm not sure. On the days she was gone from class, she went to visit the Catholic family that cared for her during the war, to thank them. I've never forgotten her story. It was such a surprise.
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