Survivors and Refugees (1944-1947)
Wednesday, January 27, 2016 to Sunday, November 20, 2016
After the catastrophe, the Liberation of Europe and the end of the Second World War raised feelings of tremendous joy, hope and relief. But returning to normal life hardly seemed possible for the European Jews who survived the Nazis’ attempt to totally destroy them, abetted by their local accomplices. Despite everything, all the survivors aspired to being reunited with their loved ones, returning home or finding a safe haven, going back to work and imagining a future again, either in Europe or someplace else. But chaos and uncertainty reigned everywhere.
In Poland, half the refugees back from the USSR and the few Holocaust survivors fled again. In occupied Germany, over 250,000 Jews were parked, like others, in displaced person camps, waiting for a country to take them in. In France, officials set up repatriation and reinsertion programs for “racial” deportees, a minority among the total number of deportees. Specific persecution had targeted Jews, but their plight was just one problem among many others on the scale of the continent. Help therefore came from Jewish communities themselves, which managed to rebuild religious, cultural and political life. The post-Holocaust period was not just a time when Jews were assisted, but took their destiny back into their hands.
For individuals: July 7 and 21, 2016 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Free. No prior booking required.
For groups: by request, booking required: 01 53 01 17 86
Après la Shoah, the exhibition booklet, Memorial de la Shoah, 2016. On sale at the Shoah Memorial bookshop and the online bookshop.
Henry Rousso (CNRS) with Laure Fourtage (Paris 1), Julia Maspero (Paris 1), Constance Pâris de Bollardière (EHESS), Simon Perego (Sciences Po Paris).
Marie-Edith Simonneaux Agostini assisted by Yasmin Gebhard, Shoah Memorial.
Various events, including films screenings, panel discussions and testimonials, complement and shed light on “After the Holocaust”. Book your seat online or at the Memorial’s reception desk.
