Inauguration of the renovated Wall of Names and International Day dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust
75 years ago, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps were liberated. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of this event, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the renovated Wall of Names, accompanied by Éric de Rothschild, François Heilbronn, Théo Hoffenberg and Jacques Fredj, respectively President, Vice-President, Secretary General and Director of the Shoah Memorial. The President also unveiled the plaque with Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, before addressing a large audience on the forecourt of the Memorial.
On the occasion of the inauguration of the renovated Wall of Names, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron invites all those who hold archives to deposit them at the Memorial in order to pass them on to future generations.
The ceremony ended with a minute of silence with the students of the Auguste Blanqui high school in Saint-Ouen and the Montesquieu high school in Herblay.
Performance of the CONCERT "When the song remembers the Shoah"
The Mémorial de la Shoah and the Rectorat de l'académie de Paris offered the public a performance of the show "When song remembers the Shoah", designed and written by CERCIL co-produced with Loges Production, with the exceptional participation of 130 students from the choirs of the Parisian middle schools Janson de Sailly, Gustave Flaubert, Roland Dorgelès, Robert Doisneau, as well as singers Lila Tamazit, Valérian Renault and Aimée Leballeur, musician Fred Ferrand and reciter Hélène Mouchard-Zay.
This moving moment was preceded by a message from Simone Veil written in 2010 and the response of the Ambassadors for the memory of the Shoah.
Photos: Michel Isaac
Presence of the German minister for education
The Memorial also welcomed Armin Laschet, President of North Rhine-Westphalia and Federal Minister Plenipotentiary for Franco-German Cultural Relations. Accompanied by Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education and Youth, and Geneviève Darrieussecq, Secretary of State to the Minister of the Armed Forces, he gathered in front of the Wall of Names and the crypt, and then attended the performance of the choir. The delegation also attended the restitution of a workshop on antisemitism and racist prejudices led by the educational team of the Memorial and Sébastien Jung, history teacher, for the benefit of a first class of the Albert Schweitzer high school in Raincy.
Photos: Michel Isaac
Throughout this year 2020, the Shoah Memorial reinforces its main mission of transmitting the history of the Holocaust and genocides in order to help combat the return of antisemitism, hatred and intolerance.
