The Shoah Memorial

The Shoah Memorial opened to the public on 27 January 2005, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the European Day of Holocaust Remembrance and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity. Located in the historic Marais district of Paris, it is now the reference institution in Europe for the Holocaust.

Understanding the past to illuminate the future, such is the vocation of this place, at once a place of memory, a museum and a documentation centre. Open to a wide and diverse public, it offers many spaces and activities: a permanent exhibition on the Holocaust and the history of Jews in France during the Second World War, a space for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium that schedules screenings, conferences, debates, book presentations... , the Wall of Names where are engraved the names of 76,000 Jewish men, women, and children deported from France between 1942 and 1944; the Wall of the Just on which are inscribed the names of 2,693 Just who protected or saved Jews, in France, during the Nazi occupation; the crypt, a place of meditation where the ashes of victims of Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto were placed; the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation (one million archival items, 75,000 photographs and 50,000 books) and its reading room, a multimedia space, educational spaces where workshops for children and activities for teacher classes take place, and a bookstore.

Intended to welcome all audiences, the Shoah Memorial contributes to the teaching of a unique crime in the history of humanity but also participates in education and reflection on tolerance, freedom and democracy.