Around the Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018 at the Shoah Memorial

As part of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, several events took place at the Shoah Memorial in Paris and Drancy on 25 and 26 January 2018. Discover these moments in pictures.

Handover of the archives of Convoi 77 by Georges Mayer

On Thursday, January 25, 2018, members of the association "Convoi 77" and its president Mr. Georges Mayer met at the Shoah Memorial in order to submit 35,500 digitized archival documents concerning the last major convoy leaving from Drancy for Auschwitz to the archives of the Memorial.

Visit of the Minister of National Education

On the afternoon of 25 January, the Shoah Memorial was visited by the Minister of National Education, Mr. Jean-Michel Blanquer. After a presentation of the Memorial, a visit to the permanent exhibition and an archival presentation at the Documentation Centre, the minister was able to meet students from the Courteline middle school (Paris, 12th) in the E.J.Safra auditorium of the Memorial. He then recalled that "the school must open to truth, good and beauty", values transmitted by the Memorial through the teaching of the history of the Holocaust and genocides and its numerous educational actions carried out throughout the year.

Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education, Francois Heilbronn, Vice-President of the Memorial, Jacques Fredj, director of the Memorial and Éric de Rothschild, president of the Memorial, in front of the Wall of Names. (from G. to D.)

Jacques Fredj presents key archives of the history of the Holocaust to Jean-Michel Blanquer

Jean-Michel Blanquer, visiting the permanent exhibition of the Memorial, meets some secondary school students on a guided tour

End of the visit in the "Memorial of the children", final part of the permanent exhibition

Meeting with the students of Courteline College. From G. to D.: Éric de Rothschild, Jean-Michel Blanquer and Gilles Pécout, rector of the Paris Academy

Signing of an agreement with the Academy of Paris

The meeting with the Minister of Education ended with the signing of a partnership agreement between the Academy of Paris and the Shoah Memorial.

Éric de Rothschild, Jean-Michel Blanquer and Gilles Pécout

Meeting between Anne Hidaldo and the young ambassadors of memory

Friday, January 26, Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, met the young ambassadors of memory (Charlemagne and René Cassin high schools, Paris) at the Shoah Memorial alongside Beate and Serge Klarsfeld and Henri Borlant, survivor of the Shoah, who reminded these young high school students of the importance of getting involved.

Anne Hidalgo And Jacques Fredj © Michel Isaac

Visit of Audrey Azoulay, Director of UNESCO

Mrs Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director, accompanied by a delegation of members of the organization, went to the Memorial on Friday 26 January where she was able to attend a private visit of the exhibition dedicated to Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, in their presence. You can find the live images of this visit on the Memorial’s Facebook page.

From G. to D.: Serge Klarsfeld, Gilles Pécout, Jacques Fredj, Audrey Azoulay, Beate Klarsfeld and François Heilbronn. © Michel Isaac

Ceremony in the crypt of the Memorial

To close these two days, a ceremony in memory of the victims of the Shoah took place in the crypt of the Memorial on Friday 26 January in the presence of: Audrey Azoulay, Beate and Serge Klarsfled, Henry Borlant and young ambassadors of memory.

During this ceremony, the ambassadors of memory 2017 (Lycée Charlemagne, Paris 4th) passed the baton to the future ambassadors of memory (Lycée René Cassin, Paris 16th). A tribute to the victims of the Shoah was then rendered through readings of texts, a minute of silence and a deposit of wreaths and candles on the marble star, symbolic tomb of the six million Jews who died without burial.