Paris in 2011: the Jewish Deportation Memorial

NV 5. The Jewish Deportation Memorial

On his page 364 Hussey describes a memorial to the deportation of Jews (and others) on the Île de la Cité. Since I had not seen that before, I added it to the list of new places to visit on this trip.

Hussey speaks of it in the context of discussing the complicity of the French in rounding up Jews to send them east for extermination. Hence he says of it:

It took far longer than that [by 'that' Hussey means the time of the first movie showing the enormous crime that had been committed against fellow Parisians and French people during the 1940s, which came out in 1955] to awaken Parisians to the enormity of the crime committed in their midst. The memorial to the deportations that now occupies the eastern end of the Île de la Cité is a formal acknowledgement of the darkest days in the city. It is a grim place, and rightly so.

He is not kidding about its grimness. Looking at it from the east, and seeing the two small oblong holes of it, almost under the Île de la Cité, is powerfully symbolic of where this bit of history was, and still is today. Look at the cathedral of Notre Dame towering over it.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Notre Dame, it is a real work of art. To me it is a physical testament to the faith-fueled power of people to create. It is a massive edifice that to many symbolizes their God-concept, with spires pointing to that God's heaven. Nothing wrong with that.

But let's walk over there.

Here we are! See it? Here is a hint: people are entering on the right:

When I came down the steps,my first thought was of the hopelessness of knowing freedom is physically very close (the river), but completely out of reach. Those black, evil-looking metal objects were symbols of that hopelessness to me, as I walked in:

There is one area where photos are not allowed, for the sake of maintaining a respectful atmosphere for the visitors. But it was OK to take pictures in other areas, also depicting to me the utter sterility of human inhumanity:

'Deux cent mille' -two hundred thousand, were sent to torture and starvation in death camps. Men, women, children, all were ripped from their homes for being Jews, having been born of Jewish parents, or being otherwise considered dissidents or undesirables. Raids were typically conducted in the middle of the night. Surprise, confusion and not being dressed in street-wear made escape attempts less likely, and importantly, maximized terror.

Terrorism is not a new thing in the world.

I don't know if this is the correct response, but I was happy to get out of there and rejoin the color and beauty, the noise and pollution, of the living.