Deportation and Safeguarding of Jewish Children at the Hotel de Ville: 70 years late but still shocking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bertrand Delanoe, our wonderful Mayor, bless him, no stranger to discrimination himself, starts out his introduction to this impressive exhibition by saying straight out what French politicians have hesitated to be honest about for 70 years - it was the French who rounded up the French Jews, including 11,400 children, sending most to their death.

The good old Germans could be counted on to keep great records though and the sight of these meticulous recordings is chilling and tear-inducing.

And while DeGaulle and the French persisted in insisting that the French liberated themselves (you'll recall "... Paris, Paris outragé ! Paris brisé ! Paris martyrisé ! mais Paris libéré par lui-même, libéré par son peuple, avec le concours des armées de la France...") at least two Jewish kids understood and painted the truth.

Why should you go to this exhibit (before it closes October 27th)?  You've seen Auschwitz, the Jewish museum, Shoah the film and the Washington Holocaust Museum.  Because we must all "never forget," that's why.  PS there's a companion show of Warsaw Ghetto children circa 1943 at the Memorial de la Shoah until December 30th.