Between 1941 and 1943, more than 16,000 Jews were rounded up by the French police and interned in two French-run camps about 50km northeast of Orléans, Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers. After the 1942 Vel d'Hiv round-up, the adults were violently separated from their children and then deported; it was only a few weeks later, after authorisation had arrived from Berlin, that 4000 parent-less, terrified children were loaded onto trains and sent to Drancy and then Auschwitz and Sobibor; only 41 survived.
Exhibits document the deportations step by step; photos serve as a moving memorial for the children. Ask at the ticket booth for a booklet in English.
