Centre d'histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation Lyon

The Resistance and Deportation History Centre is housed in the former military Health College, in the very building used by the Head of the Gestapo in Lyon, and is a powerfully symbolic place in the service of history and remembrance . The building's cellars, in which the Gestapo's victims were held, and which today house the temporary exhibitions, constitute the heart of the museum. On 26th May 1944, Allied bombardments put an end to the occupation of the severely damaged building . The Gestapo services were then transferred to a building situated on the corner of the Place Bellecour and Rue Alphonse Fochier. There they carried on their sinister tasks until the liberation of the city, on 3rd September 1944.

Temporary exhibitions:

The Resistance and Deportation History Centre accepts or creates many exhibitions which bring the museum to life. They cover alternately the values of the Resistance, the current state of Human Rights or the lives of committed individuals, and occupy a central place in the museum's programming.

Educational service:

In response to what is one of its mains raisons d'être , the Centre gives young visitors pride of place in its admission and programming policy, thus contributing to the education of future citizens, free, responsible and conscious of having inherited a common memory. The educational service is available to teachers to assist them with school visits and develop an effective partnership. Visits and workshops are led by mediators.

The documentation centre:

The documentation centre is an indispensable resource for information on the period for all types of public. Admission is free with a multitude of documentary tools as well as a research assistance service. The works for consultation are listed on the website of the Lyon municipal library.

The collections:

The Resistance and Deportation History Centre conserves and cares for archives and collections. What makes it different is its remarkable collection of posters, contemporary song sheets and material coming from the great figures of the Resistance. Some 700 filmed first person stories of members of the Resistance and deportees make it a key place for discovering the oral history of this period.

The Centre is a privileged partner for the study of the Second World War, due to its richness of archival fonds, documents and collections. By its vast number of different sources, the Centre is able to weigh in on the multiple debates, the complexity of objective interpretation of history and the premises to describe it.
The local history is well represented without neglecting the national and international dimension of the conflict and to also pay attention to the memorial and historical aspects. The Centre collects documents ( books, periodicals, videos) concerning every aspect of the Second World War as well as a more broader history of the 20th century.
You can find all references regarding documentation of the Centre in the database of the municipal library on www.bm-lyon.fr.

database: www.bm-lyon.fr.