Le mémorial des martyrs de la Déportation

The work, of unparalleled originality, was planned and backed by the Réseau du Souvenir, a charity for concentration-camp survivors and their families. Founded in 1952, the organisation was defined by its underlying aim: to preserve and respect the memory of the men and women who were deported, disappeared or died for freedom, and to pass on that memory so it would never be forgotten. Its national reach and division into a number of different committees (historical, artistic, spiritual and press) made it one of the most modern organisations and one of the most committed to the challenges society was facing at the time.
 Its members – from Paul Arrighi to Father Riquet to Germaine Tillion – were key to its success and, through their actions, introduced initiatives that are still in place today: a national day of remembrance, a schools competition, publications, documentaries (e.g. Nuit et Brouillard) and memorials.

The Memorial to the Martyrs of Deportation was the culmination of their efforts.

“To transform remembrance into monument, memory into memorial.” Jean Cassou

Designed, planned and conceived by architect Georges Henri Pingusson, the Memorial to the Martyrs of Deportation took nine years to build. Years spent reflecting on the symbolism attached to the structure, with its combination of abstract, hinted-at forms and weighty, imposing artistic strokes. This architectural masterpiece, as it is presented to visitors from around the world, passes on the memory of the concentration camps, evoking certain characteristic aspects: imprisonment, oppression, the impossibility of escape. 

Standing at the tip of the Île de la Cité, this Ministry of the Armed Forces Key National Remembrance Site has undergone many changes over the past 60 years, to expand its educational reach and promote its core purpose: to be a temple for remembering and passing on the testimonies of deportees, who were subjected to repression and racial or antisemitic persecution.

Since the memorial was unveiled, the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims and Heroes of Deportation has been held here, in association with the nearby Shoah Memorial, its partner in passing on the memory of deportation.

Programme:

To mark its 60th anniversary, the Memorial to the Martyrs of Deportation is laying on a series of events to shed light on the life, challenges and legacy of the Réseau du Souvenir, offer an insight into its importance as a memorial, and hear the testimonies of eyewitnesses:

• Throughout the year, starting in January 2022

Film: Dire l’indicible. Paroles de déportés (Speaking of the unspeakable: deportees’ testimonies)

The culmination of the redesign of the memorial’s displays, begun in 2016, this film gives a voice to those who returned from the concentration camps.
Dire l’indicible. Paroles de déportés puts the survivors and their words at the heart of the memorial, in a simple, fitting testament, with no additional commentary. These men and women, some of whom were children or teenagers at the time, deported under the policies of repression and persecution, tell us of their unspeakable experiences, from their arrest and internment, to their arrival at the camps, the hardships they suffered and the return to normal life.
Screened using the latest projection technology, these eyewitness accounts are accessible to everyone, with subtitles in French, German and English. Today, this space is devoted to passing on and preserving the testimonies of deportees.

Produced by staff of the Key National Remembrance Sites office in Île-de-France
Expert advisers: Thomas Fontaine and Olivier Lalieu
Editing: Les Muséastes, Histoire de point de vue
Technical production: Avantage Vidéo
Set design: Alice dans les villes

Unaccompanied access
Guided tours of the Memorial every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm
Free of charge | Booking required: +33 (0)6 14 67 54 98 or memorial.martyrs.deportation@gmail.com

• Sunday, 22 May 2022

Sixty years ago, on 12 April 1962, the Memorial to the Martyrs of Deportation, designed by architect Georges-Henri Pingusson, was unveiled on the Île de la Cité in Paris. It was built on the initiative of the Réseau du Souvenir, a charity for concentration-camp survivors and the families of those who died.

Founded in 1952, the organisation, the brainchild of Paul Arrighi, was entirely devoted to the memory of those who were deported, disappeared or killed for freedom. Operating as a network, it covered the entire country and comprised a number of committees, on themes ranging from history to the arts to the press.

Born in Spain in 1894, Jean Cassou was an enthusiast of modern art, a writer, a cultural activist alongside Jean Zay, and a member of the Musée de l’Homme resistance network and later the Bertaux network in Toulouse. Arrested in December 1941, he was interned in Furgole prison, where he wrote, in his head, his 33 Sonnets composés au secret (33 Sonnets of the Resistance), published in 1944. An active member of the Resistance in the Toulouse area up until Liberation, Cassou was appointed Commissioner of the Republic for the Toulouse area in June 1944. After the war, he returned to his first loves: culture and the arts.He devoted his postwar career to keeping survivors’ stories alive and campaigning against a return to obscurantism. He sat on the Réseau du Souvenir’s first board of trustees and was a key member of its artistic committee (alongside M. Chausson and R. Schmitt).

“To transform remembrance into monument,
memory into memorial.”

With these words, he summed up the network’s greatest accomplishment: the construction of the Memorial to the Martyrs of Deportation.

Dramatic reading | Sunday, 22/05
A tribute to Jean Cassou
Time | 6 pm
Place | Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation
Free | To book, call +33 (0)6 14 67 54 98 or email
memorial.martyrs.deportation@gmail.com