New – Open-air exhibition: the genocides of the 20th century

Allée des Justes, near the Shoah Memorial in Paris

from March 22, 2021. 

The Memorial adapts to the current context of closure of cultural spaces and occupies the Alley of the Righteous (Paris 4^e) with the exhibition The Genocides at the XX^e century, presented to the public and passersby outside. These panels, analyzing the clichés of each genocide of the last century, will present a rich selection of photographs, archives, testimonies, made visible to the greatest number, in this pedestrian street, between the public college François Couperin and the Shoah Memorial.

Genocide is a specific offence under international criminal law and a well-individualized concept. The specificity of this offense, like the precision of this concept, are emphasized by a comparative approach of three mass murders perpetrated in XX^e century, proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be genocides. These are, in chronological order: the destruction of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, the Jews of Europe, the Tutsi of Rwanda. These genocides are comparable. The analysis of the similarities and differences they present allows for a better understanding of each one’s mechanisms.

Curators of the exhibition:
Scientific Commission/ Georges Bensoussan, historian, editorial manager of the Shoah Memorial,
Joël Kotek, historian, free university of Brussels
Yves Ternon, historian.