Maison d'Izieu, mémorial des enfants juifs exterminés

The story of the Izieu children is a European story. These Jewish children’s families were of various origins: German, Polish, Austrian, Belgian or French – from Metropolitan France or Algeria. Many crossed Europe at different times, fleeing pogroms and anti-Semitic acts or misery, hoping to find refuge in France. In September and October 1940, the Vichy regime enacted the first anti-Semitic laws. These families found themselves entrapped by wartime Europe and anti-Semitic politics. Persecuted, hunted, arrested and interned in France, 76,000 Jewish people, including 11,400 children, would be handed over to the German authorities, then deported and murdered. Humanitarian organisations set up escape networks and tried to shield children from these persecutions. In May 1943, Sabine and Miron Zlatin, in conjunction with the “Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants” (OSE) [French humanitarian organisation for Jewish children], took in some fifteen children at Izieu in the Italian Occupied Zone at that time, sheltering them temporarily from anti-Semitic manhunts. Up to January 1944, the month of the last list in the attendance register kept by Miron Zlatin, 105 children, mostly Jewish, had stayed at the Izieu home. The home was frequently a transit location within a much wider escape network integrating other houses, host families or transfer channels in Switzerland. On 6th April 1944, 45 children and 8 adults were present at the home. All were Jewish except for one boy, René-Michel Wucher. Under the orders of Klaus Barbie, Gestapo agents and Wehrmacht soldiers were sent to arrest all those present. One adult, Léon Reifman, managed to escape and hide at the time of the raid. Little René-Michel Wucher was released when the lorries stopped at Brégnier-Cordon, a village below Izieu. The raid on the Izieu home led to the arrest and deportation of 44 Jewish children (aged 5 to 17 years) and 7 adults. Miron Zlatin and 2 teenagers were shot at Reval (Tallin today) in Estonia. 42 children and 5 adults were assassinated at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Léa Feldblum, a helper at the home, was the only survivor.

Archives

The first archival collection from the Maison d’Izieu was transferred to the “Bibliothèque Nationale de France” [French National Library] by Sabine Zlatin in 1994, before the Maison d’Izieu opened. This collection, kept in the stamp and photographic department, consists of part of the documents she had kept since her return to the home a few weeks after the raid on 6th April 1944: children’s letters and drawings, photos of daily life at the home and its inhabitants, documents and letters concerning the creation and organisation of the Izieu home as well as the initiatives after the war to commemorate the children and adults deported and assassinated. The “Bibliothèque Nationale de France” published an inventory of these documents in 1994.

In addition to this collection, the Maison d’Izieu archives include: Documents and photographs from Sabine Zlatin’s estate, transferred to the Maison d’Izieu after her death in 1996, photographs donated by those who stayed at the home or were linked to it between 1943 and 1944: Henry Alexander, Alec Bergman, Juliette Collomb, Philippe Dehan, Guy Pallarés, Paulette Pallarés-Roche, Paul Niedermann, Marie Perticoz, Roger Perticoz, Samuel Pintel and Suzanne Reveillard. The Maison d’Izieu has identified the sources for these photographs and created an inventory. None of them belong to photographic agencies. Inventoried and maintained by the Memorial team, these documents are currently kept at the Maison d’Izieu. They will be added to the collection kept at the “Bibliothèque nationale de France” [French national library].

The Maison d’Izieu also has archives related to the Barbie trial: Alain Jakubowicz, who represented the plaintiffs, donated all the written materials used to prepare this case to the Memorial.

Testimonials: In June 2002, the Maison d’Izieu obtained 15 testimonials, from: Alfred Adler, Edmond Adler, Henry Alexander, Diane Fenster (Popowski), Georges Hirtz, Yehudit Hoelzel, Henri Kaufmann, Paul Niedermann, Samuel Pintel, Claude Raiz, Bernard Waysenson and Hélène Waysenson, who stayed at the home as children and left before the raid on 6th April 1944. Alexandre Halaunbrenner, brother of Mina and Claudine, who were arrested on 6th April 1944. Renée Pallarés, chaperone during the summer of 1943. Gabrielle Tardy (maiden name Perrier), teacher at the home starting in October 1943. Semi-directive interviews evoking the lives of these witnesses before, during and after their time at the Izieu home were conducted by the following historians and university professors: Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat, Nadine Fresco, Michèle Ganem-Gumpel and Katy Hazan. These interviews were filmed and transcribed. They are kept at the Maison d’Izieu Documentation Centre.

Other archival collections: Several archival collections in France and abroad contain documents pertaining to the lives of the Izieu children and their families as well as the home itself.

The main collections in France include: Departmental Archives of Ain and Pyrénées-Orientales Archives of the French Shoah Memorial, Centre for Contemporary Jewish Documentation Archives of the Historical Department of the French Ministry of Defence Archives of the OSE [French humanitarian organisation for Jewish children] Archives of the ORT [“Organisation Reconstruction Travail”, Jewish charity organisation] Archives of the Cimade (aid organisation for migrants and refugees) Archives of Serge Klarsfeld French national archives

and foreign archives: State Archives in Geneva (Switzerland) Archives of the Belgian Interior Federal Department, Office of Foreigners (Belgium) Federal Archives in Berne (Switzerland) Municipal Archives of Karlsruhe (Germany) Collections of the Imperial War Museum (Great Britain)