Commemoration of July 16

Each year, on July 16, the Maison d’Izieu commemorates the National day in remembrance of the victims of racist and anti-Semitic crimes by the French state and day paying tribute to “Righteous Among the Nations”.

Although this day is very likely to the ceremonies of January 27 and April 6, the one of July 16 distinguished itself by its location. The public does not gather in front of the commemorative plaque of 1946 but in front of the national memorial stele erected in 1993. Indeed, since this year, the Maison d’Izieu is one of the three key places of national remembrance of racist and anti-Semitic crimes committed by the Vichy government, with the former camp of Gurs and the Winter Velodrome (le Vel’ d’Hiv’). The latter is associated to the biggest roundup ever organised in France and Western Europe during the Second World War : on July 16 and 17 1942, around 13 000 Jewish people were taken in Paris and its suburb before they were interned and deported. It was the first time Jewish children were rounded up in France.