House
Opened in 1994
The memorial was created from the authentical place: the house which welcomed the Children’s Home from May 1943. Dated from the 19th century, it was bought from private individuals by the Maison d’Izieu association in 1990. Four years later, the memorial was opened.
Rather than a historical reenactement, the empty space in the museography evokes the absence left by the children who were rounded up.
The publics explore various living rooms: the vestibule (where the children had a wash when the weather was not fine), the educators’ room (named after the portraits of some of the adults who took care of the young refugees) and the refectory in which are exhibited reproductions of the children’s letters and drawings. The visit continues on the first floor with the classroom (the only one in the house where there is a historical reenactment) and the girls’ dormitories where the portraits of the 44 children are exhibited (boys slept on the first floor of an annex building, a former silkworm farm). The exit is via the former kitchen, used today to show the animated film La Lanterne magique des enfants d’Izieu.
