Children of Izieu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commemorative plaque on the "Place des 44 enfants d'Izieu" in the 13th arrondissement (Paris)
The house in which the 44 children were hidden until April 1944.

The children of Izieu were a group of 44 Jewish children who on April 6, 1944 order of the Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie abducted along with their seven supervisors and Drancy in the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau deported were. Before that, from May 1943 to April 1944, an estate 80 kilometers from Lyon in the community of Izieu under the name La Maison d'Izieu was used to receive Jewish children of different nationalities, whose parents had been deported by the National Socialists .

Only León Reifmann, who escaped through a window in the stairwell and was able to hide in the neighboring farmstead, and one of the supervisors, Lea Feldblum, who testified in the 1987 trial of Klaus Barbie as a prosecution witness, survived. The Maison d'Izieu has been a memorial since 1994, inaugurated by President François Mitterrand as one of his 'Grands travaux'.

La Maison d'Izieu

The orphanage in Izieu , which the children last lived in, was idyllically situated, as can be seen from a letter from Georges Halpern, who was eight at the time:

“Chère Maman! I am sending you 10,000,000,000 kisses, your son who loves you very much. There are big mountains and the village is very pretty. There are many farms and we are looking for blackberries and raspberries and white mulberries. I hug you with all my heart. Georgy. "

The workforce tried to keep secret until the very end that they looked after Jewish orphans and half- orphans .

Remembering the children of Izieu

  • The German songwriter Reinhard Mey published the title Die Kinder von Izieu on his album Immer weiter , which was released in 1994 , in memory of this house above the Rhône valley and the children deported from there.
  • Serge & Beate Klarsfeld : The children of Izieu: a Jewish tragedy . Translator Anna Mudry. With contributions from Johanna Ofori Attah and Manfred Richter. Ed. Hentrich, Berlin 1991 (Series German Past. No. 51) ISBN 3-89468-001-6 (and other works by the author in French and English)
  • The exhibition Mannheim - Izieu - Auschwitz , created by students from Lyon and Mannheim, documents the fate of six Izieu children from Baden and the Palatinate.
  • Exhibition in the town hall of Paris until April 29, 2007 on all 11,400 Jewish children deported from France: Les 11 400 enfants juifs déportés de France Detailed brochure (French) [1] , also available as an audio document: [2]
  • Pierre-Jerome Biscarat: Les enfants d'Izieu. 6 avril 1944. Un crime against l'humanité. Les Patrimoines, Veurey Ceder 2003.
  • Pierre-Jerome Biscarat: Dans la tourmente de la Shoah: Les enfants d'Izieu. Michel Lafon, Paris 2008.
  • On April 3, 2017, a memorial plaque for the children of Izieu was unveiled on Schwedenplatz in Vienna, seven of whom, including Georgy Halpern, were from Vienna.
  • On May 29, 2017, four stumbling blocks for murdered children were laid in front of the school .

  • Stumbling block for Max-Marcel Balsam

  • Stumbling block for Majer-Marcel Bulka

  • Stumbling block for Maurice Gerenstein

  • Stumbling block for Henri-Chaim Goldberg

Web links

Commons : Children of Izieu  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 45 ° 38 '56.9 "  N , 5 ° 37' 55.9"  E
  2. ↑ Memorial stone for murdered children unveiled , orf.at on April 4, 2017, accessed on April 4, 2017.