Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Memorial of the Children of Izieu, formerly Colony of Children Refugees of the Hérault, was created in 1943 to accommodate Jewish children fleeing persecution. Directed by Sabine Zlatin (Croix-Rouge) and her husband Miron, the colony offered a semblance of normality despite the war: school, vegetable garden, shows and epistolary exchanges with families. On 6 April 1944, by order of Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo arrested 44 children and 7 adults. Only an educator survived; the others were exterminated in Auschwitz or shot in Estonia.

At the end of the Barbie trial (1987), Sabine Zlatin and the prefect Pierre-Marcel Wiltzer founded the association to acquire the house and make it a memorial. Inaugurated by François Mitterrand in 1994, the site became a national memory site in 1993, alongside two other sites linked to the Shoah in France. Today it offers a permanent exhibition on genocide, archives, and educational workshops to raise awareness of the history of the Holocaust.

The house, classified as a historic monument in 1991, preserves traces of children's daily life: drawings, letters, and personal objects. In 2015, François Hollande inaugurated a new building dedicated to the Zlatin, and in 2024 Emmanuel Macron commemorated the 80th anniversary of the raid. The memorial, attended by 43,000 visitors in 2024 (37% of them school visitors), plays a key role in the transmission of history and the fight against intolerance.

Recognized for its educational approach, the memorial relies on a documentation centre and temporary exhibitions. Despite a decline in regional grants in 2016 (-17 %), it remains the most visited museum in Ain. His action is part of the memory of Nazi crimes and Vichy's collaboration, stressing the importance of democratic vigilance.

Life in Izieu reflected a discreet resistance: the children cultivated their food, attended clandestine classes, and held festivals despite restrictions. Educators such as Léa Feldblum or Gabrielle Perrier tried to preserve their innocence. The preserved letters and toys bear witness to this tragically brief parenthesis before deportation.

Future

Like the Winter Velodrome, the site of the Vel' d'Hiv raid and the Camp de Gurs, the House of Izieu is the 3rd place of the National Memory of the victims of racist and anti-Semitic persecutions and crimes against humanity committed with the complicity of the government of Vichy, as recognized by the decree of the President of the Republic of 3 February 1993.

Source Wikipedia you can consult below.

External links