Participate in the guided tour of the exhibition 'It’s tomorrow that we leave.' Letters from internees, from the Vel d'Hiv to Auschwitz

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv roundup, the Memorial presents for the first time a large selection of letters from internees in the camps of Drancy and Loiret.

From the end of 1940, tens of thousands of Jews found themselves locked up in the internment camps of the free zone and then in those of the occupied zone. Their only link with the outside is then the correspondence that they can sometimes send to their relatives. With the triggering of the «Final Solution» in 1942 and the deportations, this tenuous thread maintained with the outside turns into a farewell before the deportation. These letters are often the last traces left by the victims on the eve of their departure, or even sometimes written from the wagons that take them "to the East". Sent from internment camps, from Drancy or thrown away from trains, these tickets and postcards are the last words of the victims of the Holocaust that reached those they loved.

Translated, transcribed, the originals and facsimiles are supported by photographs and objects related to correspondence. Historical elements shed light on the importance of correspondence in the Shoah, and its essential role in transmitting the memory and history of the genocide of the Jews. Treasures of the families who entrusted them to the Memorial, these letters are the overwhelming testimony of humanity behind names and numbers. Written in Drancy and in the Loiret, these letters return, 80 years later, on these places of memory, to testify, through their authors, of the Shoah in France.

Learn more about the exhibition