With the museum of art and history of Judaism MAHJ)

The inter-museums are offered as part of partnerships between the Shoah Memorial and various institutions. These courses allow students to better understand the chosen theme.

Booking is mandatory at both establishments.

HISTORY AND MEMORIES

PATH: Stolen objects, broken lives

Level: from 9th to 12th grade

A key element in the exclusion of European Jews, spoliations are the prelude to the implementation of the "Final Solution". This two-part course first proposes to set the context of the Occupation that led to "Aryanization" and then, after the war, to study the complex restitution of these stolen goods through, in particular, examples of paintings that students will be able to discover exclusively.

Duration: 2 hours

  • 1st session at the Shoah Memorial

85 years of the Vel d'Hiv roundup

Thematic tour: Vichy and the Jews

From exclusion laws to arrests, what role did the French state, led by Philippe Pétain, play in the deportation of Jews from France? This visit gives students the key elements of understanding before tackling the mahJ discovery journey.

Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

  • 2nd session at the MAHJ

Discovery tour: X-ray of a museum

This course addresses the history of the Jews during the Second World War through an investigation into the museum’s collections. Students discover a display case of objects looted and then returned, a painting looted in search of its owner, as well as the works of Fédor Löwenstein, Diane Esmond and Chana Orloff, whose journeys bear witness to the spoliations, losses and restitutions of works of art.

The visit also evokes the Aryanization of the property of the Jewish inhabitants of the Hotel de Saint-Aignan, making it possible to understand the mechanisms of economic spoliation implemented under the Occupation.

Duration: 2 hours

Duration: 1 day or 2 half-days

Pricing : €49 per group at the Shoah Memorial
€40 per group in the morning

Booking is mandatory with both institutions.

Shoah Memorial: Tel.: 01 53 01 17 26, Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. or reservation.groupes@memorialdelashoah.org

Museum of art and history of Judaism (mahJ): form to be filled out online before any exchange by email or phone: www.mahj.org/fr/reservation-visite-groupe-académique

Tel.: 01 53 01 86 57 on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., by email: education@mahj.org

HISTORY AND CITIZENSHIP

From Dreyfus to the Shoah 

Level: from 2nd to final year

From the Dreyfus affair to the Vichy regime, students analyze how the media played an important role in shaping public opinion. They are invited to continue their reflection until today in order to appropriate the critical tools and reflexes essential to decrypt the continuous flow of information in the digital age.

  • 1st session at the HJ

Course-workshop: Opinions, media and debates at the time of the Dreyfus affair (1894-1906) 

Using documents drawn from the family archives of Alfred Dreyfus, video clips and newspaper caricatures, students discover the political and social impact of the Affair at the Belle Époque and its key role in the evolution of democratic debate in France.

Duration: 2h30

  • 2nd session at the Shoah Memorial 

Workshop: international, disinformation and propaganda 

Level: from 4th to 12th grade

Themes: Dreyfus Affair (4th), anti-Semitic propaganda (3rd and high school), editorial line, rumors on the internet.

Historical periods: Late 19th – early 20th century (4th), Second World War (3rd and high school), history of the present time.

Media: Photographs, testimonies, articles, press headlines, social networks.

Main activities: Group work on archival documents, creation of an Instagram post.

Duration: 3h

ART HISTORY

Art and memory 

Level: from 9th to 12th grade

This unique journey allows us to explore two dimensions of artistic creation: the ephemeral and the sustainable. Through the singular work of artist Christian Boltanski, at the entrance of the mahJ, students question the fragility of traces and the emotion aroused by absence. Faced with the solid architecture of the Memorial, they seek symbolism and apprehend the layout chosen by its builders. Between intimate feelings and historical institutionalization, the goal is to understand how memory is built.

At the Shoah Memorial 

Thematic visit: building against oblivion 

This architectural tour retraces the history of the construction of the Memorial from 1953 to the present day. Which actors, which choices, what challenges? It is an unprecedented journey that will lead us to the discovery of materials and symbols hidden behind each stone.

Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Au mahJ

Course-workshop: Memory and creative process

During a visit focused on the notion of memory, students discover the work of Christian Boltanski, Les habitants de l'hôtel de Saint-Agnan en 1939 (1998). Inspired by different artistic approaches, they then create a temporary installation.

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Destinies of artists 

Level: from 9th to 12th grade

This course invites students to discover the lives of artists who lived through the 20th century: Michel Kikoïne, Georges Kars, Charlotte Salomon and Ceija Stojka.

How do their works, embodiments of an era that is sometimes clear, sometimes dark, express their humanity and resilience in the face of persecution?

At the Shoah Memorial

Workshop: Charlotte Salomon, Ceija Stojka: two painters facing the Nazism 

This workshop takes place entirely in German

Level: 3rd, high school students LV2 (beginner-intermediate level in German)

Themes: Deportation, art, music, literature, painting, the rise of Nazism, "Undesirable" in France, persecution of Gypsies.

Historical periods: 1930s, Second World War.

Media: Reproduction of paintings, poetry, music, video excerpts, archival documents, booklet, German vocabulary.

Main activities: Group work on pictorial works, musical discovery and video excerpts in German, artistic reproduction, support with an educational booklet.

Duration: 3h

To the mahJ of your choice 

Visit to the "Artists of the Paris School" 

A suitcase, a mask, a palette, a window on Paris... Claire tells the story of her father’s studio, the painter Michel Kikoïne. It is through her eyes that students discover the effervescent life of artists in the Montparnasse district. After discovering the works of Modigliani, Soutine and Zadkine, the students create a cubist collage.

Duration: 2h30

Visit of the temporary exhibition on Georges Kars

Exceptionally, from October 15, 2026 to March 14, 2027 

A bohemian in Pars. First major exhibition dedicated to Georges Kars (1880-1945), it gives back its full place to this Czech painter, a figure of the Paris School today little known. The story follows his training in Prague and Munich, then his career in Paris, up to the anti-Semitic persecutions that forced him into exile in Switzerland, where he tragically died in Geneva in 1945. It also sheds light on the links between the artistic scenes of Prague and Paris.

Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Duration: 1 day or 2 half-days

Prices: At the Shoah Memorial: €49 per group for a guided tour
€69 per group for a workshop

Au mahJ: €40 per group for a guided tour
€50 per group for a workshop path

Booking is mandatory with both institutions.

Shoah Memorial: Tel.: 01 53 01 17 26 from Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. or by email: reservation.groupes@memorialdelashoah.org

Museum of art and history of Judaism (mahJ): form to be filled out online before any exchange by email or phone: www.mahj.org/fr/reservation-visite-groupe-académique

Tel.: 01 53 01 86 57 on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., or by email: education@mahj.org