Camp des Milles - A memorial for the future

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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES MĂŠmoire et Education

www.campdesmilles.org

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“

Should the echo of their voices weaken, we shall perish

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Paul Eluard

“…young children, stumbling with fatigue in the cold night, crying in hunger… poor little fellows of 5 or 6 years old trying valiantly to carry big bundle of clothes, falling to sleep and rolling on the ground…”

(Rev Henry Manen, Righteous among the Nations, before a convoy of Milles September 2, 1942)

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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES Mémoire et Education

A concentration and deportation camp in Provence Opened in September 1939 in a tile-factory located between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, “Camp des Milles” was in activity for more than three years and was opened even before German occupation. It rapidly filled up with more than 10,000 prisoners from 27 countries with a large part coming from Germany and Austria.

Its history can be divided into several phases corresponding to different classes of prisoners who stayed there: national “enemies”, illegal aliens seeking to emigrate, Jews captured and rounded up as part of the "Nazi Final Solution" supported by the Vichy regime.

An interesting feature of this camp was the high number of intellectuals and artists who developed an active cultural life creating many works there.

Among others who were detained in the camp were famous painters or writers like Max Ernst, Lion Feuchtwanger, Hans Bellmer or Alfred Kantorowicz, Golo Mann, Nobel laureates, politicians from Germany, Austria, Italy and former members of the International Brigades in Spain.

Courageous men and women offered their help to the prisoners.

Some of these people have been recognized "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel. These include Rev. Henry Manen, guardian Auguste Boyer and their wives. “... Young fathers and mothers silently weeping helpless to console the suffering of their children. The order was then given to leave the camp and board the train ...” Rev Henry Manen, before a convoy at ‘Camp des Milles’ September 2, 1942.

Through these different phases, one can see the tragic developments in the repression against foreigners and refugees under the Vichy regime.

A process which then culminated in August and September 1942 with the deportation of more than 2,000 Jews, men, women and children to Auschwitz.

“The Banquet of nations,” a fresco attributed to Karl Bodek, a Jewish artist detained in ‘Camp des Milles’” who was deported and died in Auschwitz.

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Student testimonies This visit has deeply stirred me. It has changed my view of the world and marked my mind for a very long time Lea

”

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A project for Memory, Citizen Education and Culture “I am convinced that ‘Camp des Milles’ will become an important, indeed very important place for the next centuries…”

(Elie Wiesel, 2006) The project of “Camp des Milles Memorial” aims to save, equip and open to the public the only remaining French concentration and deportation camp still preserved among 240 WWII ones ; it still has visible and striking traces from the past.

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The project represents the culmination of a 30 years commemorative path with the objective of developing a Memorial for civic education and culture.

A particular emphasis will be placed on this goal.

The aim is to strengthen the visitors’ vigilance and responsibility, especially the young visitor, constantly faced with threats of racism, anti-semitism, fanaticism and totalitarianism.

This site is part of a particularly painful period in the history of

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Mankind. It is thus an essential part of European culture and World heritage.

Student testimonies

We must continue to learn about and maintain the memory of what happened in the past to be aware of what evil is capable of and so learn to control this feeling which is in us.

”

Florence

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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES Mémoire et Education

... for today and the future The three faces of the project: • Restoration, preservation and opening to the public of the historical premises having been used for concentration and deportation (15,000 m2 of buildings and 60,000 m2 of grounds).

This is notably the tile-factory itself which was the main internment building.

• Historical information on the different periods of “Camp des Milles”, as well as on its national, European and World contexts.

• Civic and cultural education, based not only on the historical site itself but also on the various scientific and artistic works made since the war on relevant topics. The purpose is to provide visitors, and specially young visitors, with tools for vigilance and resistance.

Therefore the aim is to bring people with scientific keys of understanding about the Holocaust

and other genocides as much as about totalitarianism and fanaticism.

show not only the various individual and collective processes to intolerance but also the various forms of resistance to these spirals.

Three main topics will be proposed to visitors: - Resisting the spirals of intolerance - Democracy and dictatorship - Mankind's responsibility.

• An exceptional interest about Camp des Milles Memorial, years before its opening, in France and abroad, from the large community, the media, the teachers, the researchers, the students and from all the groups under defamation or racism.

Major advantages: • A relevant place to illustrate French collaborationist government's policy of exclusion and repression during WWII, the steps leading up to the Holocaust and the difficulties of maintaining its memory.

• A project located in a 2 millions people area, a very important tourist region, and a dense infrastructure network (motorways, international airport, Aix /Marseille TGV train-stations...).

• A unique place in France since Camp des Milles has been so well preserved. It offers an exceptional opportunity to see paintings left behind by the many artists who were prisoners in the camp.

• A large potential of over 100,000 annual visitors (results of an expert University survey).

• An original educational and cultural memorial project, with an innovative exhibition intending to

Student testimonies

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It is essential to preserve this historic site as evidence of the horror inflicted in such camps, hoping that this will never happen again.

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Hajira

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A project coming from the community and the government After battles during thirty years to preserve the site and to create the “Camp des Milles Memorial”, a Steering Committee was established in 2002, uniting various public, private and associative partners. Its main objective was to establish a Memorial for cultural and civic education.

The Association "Camp des Milles Memorial" was created to manage this project.

At the end of 2003 the committee developed a frame defining goals over several years period. It established how the site and its environment should be run, investment and working objectives and the future management structure.

An international multidisciplinary Scientific Council guarantees the quality of project content.

A project management group, led by “Atelier November”, has been working since 2006 on the architectural and technical development, as well as on its landscaping and museum design.

On the 25th of February 2009, an Act from the Prime Minister, recognizes the “Camp des Milles Foundation” as a public service establishment whose mission is to continue the operation initiated by the Association. The Board of Directors is comprised of the public, private and associative partners.

ensure the future opening of the “Camp des Milles” in june 2012.

Furthermore, the “Camp des Milles Memorial” is one of the flagship projects for the “Marseille-Provence, European Capital of Culture 2013” initiative, decided by the European Union .

Alain Chouraqui was elected President and Serge Klarsfeld as Vice-president.

Sufficient funds were finally brought to ensure the start of works and

Student testimonies

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“

The pathway from the camp to the train-wagon left a big impression on me as we walked the same footsteps of former prisoners, men, women and children Sebastian

”

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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES Mémoire et Education

WORDS FROM “CAMP DES MILLES” D E P O R T E E S TO A U S C H W I T Z “On August 26, 1942, at 5 o’clock in the morning, several policemen barge in (…). A young Polish refugee threw herself out the window…The protestant Pastor (Manen), vouching for the authenticity of my baptism certificate, has obtained from the camp authorities that my name be taken off the list of persons to be deported (…) That morning, the yard was empty, the train was still there (…) we were ordered to come down. A man dressed in black, wearing boots, who looked curiously like a SS…I believe the Chief of Police of Marseille (…) holding a sort of riding- whip that he used to point to certain women (…)

I managed to escape.”

Testimony from Elisabeth Steinitz, refugee in Marseille.

“Prisoner in ‘Camp des Milles’ (1942), I witnessed a suicide.The number of 50 fake marriages is perhaps underestimated. I wrote to two boyfriends from Marseille. They didn’t come! My friend Dieta and I, we hid in an oven (...) under the floor boards.”

Testimony from Liselotte Karpfen “We were about ten girls and boys between the ages of 15 and 18, kept hidden by the OSE that evening on the roof of the camp until after the train left.

We were also helped by some Sisters of N-D de Sion.”

Testimony from Dieta Gallet

“1939 Dachau, Antibes… Les Milles… deportation after being stripped of our belongings by the Reserve Mobile Guards [Gardes Mobiles de Réserve]…The trip lasted eight to ten days across Germany, a real torture (…) When we arrived in Upper Silesia, three had died. Auschwitz…Gross-Rosen, forty-five months in the camp.”

Testimony of Oscar Lusting “Arrested at the Saint-Charles train station on August 26, 1942, two policemen on bicycles…Miserable fare, filth, flees, bedbugs (…) pilfering of food… our American visas are destroyed. Deportees loaded up while beaten with rifle butts (…) Saved thanks to a telegram from a son enrolled in the Legion.”

Professor Simon (Yad Vashem) “I was only 13…We were arrested in the train by the militia and taken to the Camp des Milles where there was already a large crowd… We were sleeping on straw mats on the floor. The beams of the room were covered with bed bugs that attacked us at night... One day, my father, accompanied by a militia man, came to kiss me for the last time…I think illness prevented my parents’ escape by way of a tunnel.”

Testimony of Félicie Awerbuch

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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES MĂŠmoire et Education

State-approved foundation 40, chemin de la Badesse - CS 50642 - 13547 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 4 - Tel. 04 42 39 17 11 - Fax 04 42 24 34 68 Email : fondation@campdesmilles.org www.campdesmilles.org