Archives

The Maison d’Izieu has a digital storage space for conserving and protecting digital collections as well as an archive storage space, all of which are in accordance with the professional conservation standards.

Archive Collection

The Maison d’Izieu’s first archive collection was filed in the French National library by Sabine Zlatin in 1994, before the memorial was opened.

This collection, kept in the Prints and Photography Department, comprises some of the documents she had kept since she first went back to the home a few weeks after the roundup on 6 April 1944: the children’s letters and drawings, photographs of daily life in the home and its residents, documents and letters about establishing and setting up the home in Izieu or even the post-war proceedings initiated in memory of the children and adults who were deported and killed. A list of these documents was published in 1994 by the French National Library.

The following files were added to this collection:

• Sabine Zlatin’s documents and photographs, which were given to the Maison d’Izieu after she died in 1996.
• Photographs provided by those who stayed at the home or who had some kind of connection to it between 1943 and 1944. These are the collections of Henry Alexander, Alec Bergman, Juliette Collomb, Philippe Dehan, Guy Pallarés, Paulette Pallarés-Roche, Paul Niedermann, Marie Perticoz, Roger Perticoz, Samuel Pintel and Suzanne Reveillard. These photographs have all been documented and recorded by the Maison d’Izieu. None of them belong to any agency whatsoever.
• In June 2002, testimonies were filmed of former children who stayed in the home that left before the roundup on 6 April 1944 (Alfred Adler, Edmond Adler, Henry Alexander, Diane Fenster (Popowski), Georges Hirtz, Yehudit Hoelzel, Henri Kaufman, Paul Niedermann, Samuel Pintel, Claude Raiz, Bernard Waysenson and Hélène Waysenson); Alexandre Halaunbrenner, who was the brother of Mina and Claudine, who were arrested on 6 April 1944; Renée Pallarés, assistant counsellor in the summer of 1943 and Gabrielle Tardy (Perrier, by maiden name), who was the teacher at the home from October 1943.
• The Pierre-Marcel Wiltzer collection, including all his working papers on the creation of the association and the memorial.
• Alain Jakubowicz, lawyer of the civil party, donated his files on the Barbie trial to the memorial.
• The Robert Falco collection, the deputy judge of Henri Donnedieu de Vabres at the Nuremberg trial, was given to the Maison d’Izieu by Guy Bermann’s wife, lawyer of the civil party at the Klaus Barbie trial in Lyon, on Ugo Iannuci’s recommendation, who was the President of the Lyon Bar Association at the time, in November 2011. This collection is made up of almost all the judge’s working documents from the trial.
• The Henri Donnedieu de Vabres collection, who was a judge at the Nuremberg trial, was donated by the family to the memorial in 2019. It includes handwritten notes made by the judge during the hearings, an official photograph album and lectures by this distinguished professor.

The memorial also holds in its collection, a few pieces from private individuals who want to both protect them and improve the collections.

The objects

Sabine Zlatin left everything to the Maison d’Izieu. Objects testifying to her work as a painter and bookseller are kept at the memorial.

Sketchbooks, around sixty paintings (painted between the 1930s and 1980s) and various personal items. The paintings are subject to preventive restoration to ensure they are preserved and enhanced.

Document collection

The Maison d’Izieu collections are further improved by private donations, which are invaluable for research and documentation on the historical context and background of the families of the children of Izieu, thereby helping people to commemorate what happened and to educate the younger generations.

If you think you have documents that may be of interest and would like to donate them, contact the Maison d’Izieu’s documentation and archives centre via the online form.