Located in Paris, in the heart of the historic Marais district, the Shoah Memorial offers its visitors numerous resources and activities on a total area of nearly 5,000 m 2. Discover the different spaces that make up this place.
In the crypt under the forecourt is a black marble star of David. It is the symbolic tomb of six million Jews who died without burial.
In this place are mingled the ashes of martyrs collected in the death camps as well as in the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. These ashes were buried on February 24, 1957 in the land of Israel, according to tradition, by Rabbi Jacob Kaplan.
PRACTICAL
On the same level as the crypt, the "Jewish file" deposited at the Memorial in December 1997 is installed in an enclave of the National Archives. Are grouped several files made between 1940 and 1944 which include the files of Jews arrested in Paris and in the department of the Seine as well as the files of internees from the camps of Drancy, and Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande in the Loiret. Also preserved are the transfer, entry, and exit logs from the Drancy camp.
Some files include a specific subdivision for interned and/or deported children.
All of these documents have been digitized by the Memorial and are available for consultation at the documentation center.
How can I view this file?
The CDJC and the Memorial have no authority over the conservation, management or consultation of the file, which are the exclusive responsibility of the National Archives.
However, the CDJC has a microfilm copy of the entire "Jewish file". Researchers and families wishing to consult this file at the Memorial are invited to contact those in charge of the Naming Hall by email:
It is also possible to carry out these consultations at the National Archives.
The Book of Remembrance
Embedded in one of the crypt walls, six chests contain the volumes of the "Book of Remembrance" in which the names of the disappeared are inscribed, thus preserving them from oblivion. In these chests there are also scrolls of parchment recounting the martyrology of all the Jewish communities of Europe decimated by the Nazis.
