New – Open-air exhibition: the genocides of the twentieth 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 Allée des Justes (Paris 4^e) with the exhibition Les Génocides au XX^e century, presented to the public and passersby outdoors. 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 school François Couperin and the Shoah Memorial.

Genocide is a specific offence under international criminal law and a well-individualized concept. The specificity of this offence, as well as the precision of this concept, are highlighted by a comparative approach to three mass murders committed 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, and the Tutsi of Rwanda. These genocides are comparable. The analysis of their similarities and differences allows us to better understand each person’s mechanisms.

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