The Cercil-Memorial Museum of the Children of the Vel d'Hiv integrates the Shoah Memorial in 2018

Le Cercil, which has been managing the Museum-Memorial for the children of the Vel d'Hiv since 2011, is located in Orléans in premises made available by the City. Le Cercil is an emblematic association dedicated to the preservation of the history and memory of the internment camps in Loiret (Pithiviers, Beaune La Rolande and Jargeau), created in 1991, on the initiative of Serge Klarsfeld, historian and lawyer, Henry Bulawko, then president of the Association of former Jewish deportees of France, by Hélène Mouchard-Zay, today President of Cercil and Eliane Klein of CRIF.

From January 1, 2018, the Cercil-Memorial Museum of the children of the Vel d'Hiv integrates the Shoah Memorial.

Through this rapprochement, the Shoah Memorial and the Cercil testify to their common desire to ensure the sustainability of the activity of the Cercil which today radiates from the city of Orleans throughout the Loiret and well beyond.

The name of the Cercil–Memorial Museum for the Children of the Vel d'Hiv will be preserved, and its actions will continue and be strengthened as much as possible.

The work carried out by the CERCIL in the Region is complementary to that of the Shoah Memorial. The Memorial, at the time called the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation (CDJC), was one of the founding members of Cercil. The two institutions have been working together for many years with a real complicity in terms of pedagogical and historical missions. This merger will strengthen their efficiency, their reflection and their capacity for joint action.