The Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation on the tip of the Île de la Cité in Paris, a project of the “Le Réseau du Souvenir” association, was inaugurated on April 12, 1962 by General de Gaulle. Its design was entrusted to architect George-Henri Pingusson (1894 - 1978). In line with the aspirations of the Réseau du Souvenir, Pingusson's aim was to “evoke the long ordeal of attrition, the desire for extermination and degradation”, to pass on the memory of the Deportation to the Nazi camps, to encourage the nation to pay tribute to the victims, and to encourage contemporaries to reflect on the lessons to be learned.
A singular work of art in the heart of the capital, the Memorial suggests certain characteristic aspects of the concentration camp world: imprisonment, oppression, impossible escape. Involving the visitor, it inspires meditation in a crypt preserving the remains of an unknown deportee.
With its sober, uncluttered architecture, triangular shape surrounded by high concrete walls, irregular floor and menacing portcullis, the site represents the violence of the Nazi concentration camp system, the suffering of its victims and the visitor's sense of discomfort.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the liberation of the Ravensbrück camp in 1975, the “Resurrection” rose, created for the Amicale de Ravensbrück, was planted in the garden in front of the Memorial, on the initiative of Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing, wife of the President and daughter of a deportee.
In the same year, an educational trail was inaugurated in the upper halls in response to the negationist and revisionist ideas that were emerging, and in order to reinforce the memorial's reach and impact with a wide audience, especially younger ones. Renovated in the spring of 2016, the muséographe, the result of the latest historical work, contrasts the different stages in the construction of memory according to the era, and studies the singularities of the different deportations while bringing them together in the Nation's homage.
Practical information
Address
Square de l’Île-de-France
quai de l’archevêché
75004 Paris
Opening hours
Open daily from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm
Contacts
memorial.martyrs.deportation@onacvg.fr
+33 (0)6 14 67 54 98
