Mémorial de la Shoah

The Mémorial de la Shoah in the Le Marais district of Paris's 4th arrondissement is France's principal Holocaust memorial and documentation centre, inaugurated on 25 January 2005 on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The site stands in the historic Jewish quarter of the Marais and incorporates the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu, which had occupied the building since 1956 and was absorbed into the expanded institution following legislation by the French state. The entrance hall opens directly onto the Wall of Names, a 70-metre-long wall engraved with the names of approximately 76,000 Jewish men, women, and children deported from France between 1942 and 1944, the vast majority to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Most were French citizens or long-term residents; fewer than 3,000 survived. The wall remains the memorial's most immediate and visited element, and on-site database terminals allow visitors to search for individual names. A circular crypt beneath the building contains an eternal flame and a Star of David medallion holding ashes brought from the Nazi extermination camps, alongside soil from French Jewish cemeteries and from Israel. The permanent exhibition occupies two floors and follows a broadly chronological structure: the rise of National Socialism in Germany, the fall of France in 1940, the Vichy regime's collaboration in anti-Jewish legislation, the mechanics of deportation and camp life, liberation, and postwar justice proceedings. Original artefacts include deportation orders, identity cards, photographs of mass arrests including the Vel d'Hiv round-up of July 1942 — in which over 13,000 Jews were seized by French police — and items belonging to camp prisoners. A children's memorial added in 2012 is dedicated to the 11,400 children under 18 deported from France, with individual photographs, names, and ages where documentation survives. The Mémorial's library holds over 70,000 volumes and is open to the public and to academic researchers. Admission to all permanent galleries is free, and Thursday evening opening until 22:00 provides access for visitors who cannot attend during standard weekday hours.