Shoah Memorial Paris

The Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris has its origins during World War II, with the clandestine creation of an archive fund by Isaac Schneersohn in 1943. This fund aimed to gather evidence of the persecution of Jews, laying the groundwork for international criminal justice at the Nuremberg Trials. After the war, the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC – Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center) was established, focusing on classifying archives to study the destruction of Jews in France. The CDJC also created its own publishing house and launched the first Holocaust history journal, “Le Monde Juif” (The Jewish World) in 1946.

The CDJC played a crucial role in the Nuremberg Trials, providing documentation to support the French government’s case. This role in aiding justice continued in subsequent trials in Germany, France, and Israel, including the Eichmann and Barbie trials.

In 1950, Isaac Schneersohn decided to create a tomb-memorial for Holocaust victims, known as the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu (Memorial od rhe Unknown Jewish Martyr). The first stone was laid in 1953 on land donated by the City of Paris and the memorial was inaugurated on October 30, 1956, with ashes from extermination camps and the Warsaw Ghetto solemnly placed in its crypt in 1957.

The Mémorial de la Shoah, inaugurated in 2005, represents an expansion of the CDJC’s role as a research center and memorial site. It includes an exhibition on the history of the Holocaust, multimedia spaces, an auditorium, and the “Wall of Names” of Jews deported from France. Today, the Mémorial de la Shoah is a museum, archive center, and a place of memory and transmission, with a regional presence in France and internationally.

The Mémorial de la Shoah places a strong emphasis on education. It hosts a variety of educational programs, workshops, and seminars aimed at teaching the history of the Holocaust to students and the wider public. These programs are designed to foster a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and to promote the values of tolerance, human rights, and the prevention of genocide.