Mémorial de la Shoah

Established in 1956, the Memorial to the Unknown Jewish Martyr has metamorphosed into the Mémorial de la Shoah and documentation centre. The permanent collection and temporary exhibitions relate to the Holocaust and the German occupation of parts of France and Paris during WWII; the film clips of contemporary footage and interviews are heart-rending and the displays instructive and easy to follow. The actual memorial to the victims of the Shoah, a Hebrew word meaning ‘catastrophe’ and synonymous with the Holocaust, stands at the entrance, and there is a wall inscribed with the names of 76,000 men, women and children deported from France to Nazi extermination camps.