The Shoah Memorial joins the emotion aroused by the death of Robert Badinter, a member of the Board of Directors of our institution.
Robert Badinter left us on February 9, 2024 in his 95th year, 81 years to the day after the raid on Sainte Catherine Street in which his father, Samuel Badinter, was taken and witnessed. Samuel Badinter was deported from the Drancy camp by convoy 53 on 25 March 1943 and assassinated at Sobibor.
At the origin of the law that led to the abolition of the death penalty under Francois Mitterrand in 1981, Robert Badinter allowed the investigation and trial of Klaus Barbie to take place in the good guarantees of the rule of law, insisting that justice should be unassailable. Symbolically, Robert Badinter had decided that Barbie would be incarcerated in the prison of Montluc, where he had prevailed during the war.
In the wake of his 2007 trial with the denier Faurisson, Robert Badinter said, “… let things be clear to me for the rest of my life, and as long as I have a breath, you and your like will never be the most tragic forgers of history and history that I hope humanity will learn and remember.”
The Shoah Memorial extends its deepest condolences to the family of Robert Badinter.
