general presentation

Its history in a few words…

The Maison d’Izieu, opened by Sabine and Miron Zlatin, welcomed more than a hundred Jewish children from May 1943 to April 1944 to help them escape anti-Semitic persecution.

On the morning of 6 April 1944, the 44 children and 7 educators who were there were rounded up and deported under Klaus Barbie’s orders, one of the leaders of the Lyon Gestapo.

With the exception of two teenagers and Miron Zlatin, who were shot in Reval (now Tallinn) in Estonia, the rest of the group was deported to Auschwitz. Only one adult returned, Lea Feldblum, and all the others were gassed as soon as they arrived.

Tracked down and brought back to France by Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, with help from two of the mothers of the children who were rounded up in Izieu, Fortunée Benguigui and Ita-Rosa Halaunbrenner, Klaus Barbie was brought before the French courts. With many witnesses coming forward, he was tried and sentenced in Lyon in 1987 for crimes against humanity. This trial firmly etched the Izieu roundup into the foundation of French remembrance.

The day after this trial, in March 1988, the “Memorial Museum of the Children of Izieu” association was formed based on Sabine Zlatin.

Since the decree of the President of the Republic of 3 February 1993, the Maison d’Izieu, together with the former Vélodrome d’Hiver and the former Gurs internment camp, has been one of three places dedicated to the national remembrance of the victims of racist and anti-semitic persecutions and crimes against humanity, that were committed with the complicity of the Vichy government known as the “French State Government” (1940-1944).

The site is protected and included in the additional list of historical monuments in 1991 thanks to national public fundraising.

As part of the Grand Travaux programme by the President of the Republic, the memorial of the Maison d’Izieu was inaugurated on 24 April 1994 by President François Mitterrand.

In 2015, the Sabine and Miron Zlatin building was created, the Maison d’Izieu’s permanent exhibition was redesigned and new digital devices were developed. It was inaugurated on 6 April 2015 by President François Hollande.

In 2022, Maison d’Izieu inaugurates a new exhibition space, the Zlatin Gallery, dedicated to the display of original documents or temporary collections.

 

 

The visiting spaces

The Maison d’Izieu is both a place of remembrance and a museum where you can discover

– the house, a place of remembrance where the children and their educators lived, with drawings, letters and portraits;

– the museum with three permanent exhibition spaces where you will find numerous accessible contents on the history of the Shoah during the Second World War, international criminal justice and the construction of remembrance

– the two temporary exhibition spaces:
– the orchard hosts outdoor exhibitions.
– the Zlatin Gallery, which contains original documents and collections as well as portraits of the children and adults of the colony made by the artist Winfried Veit

 

The house of Izieu today

A place of remembrance, education and life in order to understand crimes against humanity and to act against all forms of discrimination.

The house of Izieu is today a place of welcome and vigilance that intends to deliver a universal message and act against all forms of intolerance and racism.

The Maison d’Izieu is both a place of remembrance and a museum where you will find many accessible contents on history, justice and the construction of the remembrance of Izieu. The house, a place of remembrance where the children and their educators lived, collects the children’s letters and drawings and their portraits. The museum is equipped with a permanent exhibition with many interactive contents that allow to understand the journey of the families and children of the Colony, the K. Barbie trial, and crimes against humanity around the world. The Maison d’Izieu regularly hosts temporary exhibitions.

Through its actions, the Maison d’Izieu contributes throughout the year to

EDUCATE, AWAKEN, RAISE AWARENESS
Today, the Maison d’Izieu reaches more than 15,000 students from middle schools, high schools and schools in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, throughout France and abroad. Visits, thematic workshops, and work with artists are offered and conducted in close collaboration with teachers.

TRAIN, TRANSMIT
Training courses for teachers are offered each year at Maison d’Izieu and during seminars abroad in partnership with other remembrance sites (Yad Vashem-Israel; Frankfurt/Nuremberg-Germany; Auschwitz-Poland…). Maison d’Izieu also raises awareness of racism and anti-Semitism questions  among students, educators, civil servants and professionals.

EXPLAIN, INFORM, ACT
Accompanied visits are proposed to facilitate the understanding of this unique place and to make a complex contemporary history accessible to all: the Shoah in France during the Second World War; the birth of international justice and its functioning until today; the construction of a remembrance of crimes against humanity.

DOCUMENTING, RESEARCHING, PRESERVING
The Maison d’Izieu continues to conduct research through its Documentation and Research Center on the lives of the families of the 44 children, their seven educators, and on the crime against humanity. It pursues research and completes its archive collections through regular donations. The contents feed the exhibition thanks to new digital applications.

ANIMATE, DEBATE
The Maison d’Izieu, a living place, accompanies the dynamics of the territory with its cultural program: concerts, literary meetings, citizen debates, symposiums, events…

 

Awards:

Remise du Trophée Tourisme et Patrimoine 2019 © Maison d’Izieu

The Maison d’Izieu received:

The Ain Business Trophy in the category “Tourism and Heritage 2019”; by Aintourisme and the Ain department
The Louis Blum 2019 Prize by the CRIF Grenoble-Dauphiné and the gold medal of the city of Grenoble

The “Accueil vélo 2021” label for the reception dedicated to cyclotourists