Lyon builds its memorial

In the heart of Lyon (Rhône), a few steps from Perrache station, a rectangular block 12 m long and 3 m high now attracts the eye of passers-by. This is the new Holocaust memorial, which will be inaugurated this Sunday, January 26, on Place Carnot, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp.

Titled The tracks of memory, the work consists of 1,173 meters of stacked railway rails, recalling the 1,173 km of railway tracks separating Lyon from Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. It was designed by the Parisian firm Blaising & Borchardt Studio, a very young architecture and design agency, for which this is the first participation in a competition of this type. His project was selected from 96 applications from 25 different nationalities.

Engage the public

On one side, written in capital letters, we can read the following inscription: “In memory of the six million victims of the Shoah, including one and a half million children (1933-1945). 6,100 came from our region. » “It was important that this monument paid tribute to the regional victims, but, more broadly, that it recalled, in the heart of the city, what this paroxysmal event of the 20th century was,” insists Jean-Olivier Viout, president of the association for the Shoah memorial in Lyon.

During the war, the Lyon-Perrache station saw numerous convoys leave for Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), the last stop for deportees before the death camps. It was there, in particular, that the 44 Jewish children, rounded up in April 1944, from the colony of Izieu (Ain) boarded the train. “If we don’t keep this memory alive,” continues the man who was also a deputy prosecutor during the trial of Nazi Klaus Barbie in 1987, “then all these victims died for nothing. This memorial is not a monument to nostalgic veterans, it is intended to appeal to the public and, in particular, young people. Let them understand what fanaticism leads to. »

This project was carried out by an association of citizens and financed by private donations and help from public authorities. “My only regret,” adds Jean-Olivier Viout: “the last two Lyon victims of the Shoah, driving forces behind this company, will not see its inauguration. »

Benjamin Orenstein, survivor of seven camps including Auschwitz, died in 2021. Claude Bloch, the last Lyon survivor of Auschwitz, died on December 31, 2023.

The memory of the Shoah will survive them: at the back of the monument, in the small adjoining garden, QR codes placed on benches will provide access to educational links on the genocide and the deportation of Jews. To never forget.