Dedicated to the living memory. This is the inscription at the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation. It honors the 200000 French deportees. They sleep in the night and the fog. They were exterminated in Nazi concentration camps.
Standing here at the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation. Consider its profound purpose. It commemorates the 200000 people. They were deported from Vichy France to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
French modernist architect Georges-Henri Pingusson designed it. Charles de Gaulle inaugurated it in 1962. The memorial stands on the site of a former morgue. It is underground behind Notre Dame on Île de la Cité.
Imagine this place in 1962. A brochure called it a crypt. It was hollowed out of the sacred isle. It incarnates the soul of France. It is a place where its spirit dwells.
The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation is shaped like a ship’s prow. Two staircases lead to the crypt. A lowered square is protected by a metal portcullis. The crypt leads to a hexagonal rotunda. It includes two chapels. They contain earth and bones from concentration camps. Literary excerpts adorn the walls.
Pingusson wanted to convey claustrophobia. The long narrow subterranean space achieves this. The entrance is narrow marked by two concrete blocks. Inside, the Tomb of the Unknown Deportee rests. He was killed at the camp in Neustadt.
Along the walls are 200000 glass crystals. Light shines through each one. They symbolize each deportee who died. At the tunnel’s end is a single bright light. Urns containing ashes from the camps are at both ends. Small rooms depict prison cells. Opposite the entrance is an iron gate. It overlooks the Seine.
The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation features excerpts. These are from works by Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos and others. Desnos was a French Resistance member and deportee.
A circular plaque is on the floor. It reads. They descended into the mouth of the earth and they did not return. The Tomb of the Unknown Deportee bears an inscription. It is dedicated to the living memory.
Architectural Digest called it one of the ten most significant memorial buildings. It evokes the unspeakable drama of deportation. Its entrance is a descending stairway. One visitor called it small stark and savagely detailed. It is a place for tears. It’s a refuge from crowds. It’s a reminder of one of history’s darkest episodes.
Remember this Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation. Remember the 200000 lives lost. Forgive but never forget.