The Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation is located in a quiet garden (le Square de l'Île de France) on the south-eastern tip of the Île de la Cité (the island where Notre Dame is located) in the centre of Paris.

The Memorial was designed by the architect Georges Henri Pingusson and unveiled by President Charles de Gaulle in 1962.

It memorializes the 160,000 people who were deported from France to the concentration camps between 1940-1945, 85,000 of whom were political activists, resistance fighters, homosexuals and gypsies.

76,000 of them were Jews, including 11,000 children. Only 2,500 of those deported survived.

This Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation was designed to represent features of the concentration camps; narrow passages, tight stairways, spiked gates and restricted views with no sight of the horizon.

Opening Hours:
10am-12pm, 2pm-7pm, daily, April-Sep
10am-12pm, 2pm-5pm, daily, Oct-Mar

Public Transport:
Metro: Cite; Pont Marie
RER: Saint Michel-Notre Dame

As seen from the road and the park.
Although it is free, you will have your bag searched.

Entry is through a set of narrow stairs to a triangular courtyard that is only open to the sky. At the tip of this triangular space, there is a very sharp and jagged sculpture over a rusty barred-window looking out over the Seine, a symbolic view of a prisoner.

looking back.

Entry to the interior spaces.
The architect had the concrete made from pebbles collected from every region in France and then crushed to make the mortar.

Inside there is a main chamber and a few side chambers. The main chamber has a single shaft of light from the entry towards a plague with a little flame. The walls are inscribed with poetry, words of the deportees.

Inside is a long hallway with 200,000 lighted crystals and an eternal flame flickering in the distance. Just here is the tomb of the unknown deportee with the inscription, "Dedicated to the living memory of the 200,000 French deportees sleeping in the night and the fog, exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps."

One of the side chambers.
The black triangles embedded in the walls and inscribed with the names of the death camps contain soil and the ashes of the victims from those camps.

The exit.
And a view from the barred window opposite.

You know I would've walked past this twice in two visits to Paris, and not once have I realised it was there! Next time! ;)

Thanks for the tip mate! :D

Great images Kevin!

One more... as seen from the roof of the Arab World Institute by Jean Nouvel

You know I would've walked past this twice in two visits to Paris, and not once have I realised it was there! Next time! ;)

Thanks for the tip mate! :D

Yes, I didn't know about it until a friend from uni back in 4th year told me about it.

Wow, had no idea it existed, impressive spaces!

I love how the Google Earth image shows like hundreds of people outside Notre Dame and surrounding streets, and it's almost totally empty where this memorial is, except a handful of people in the park above and no one to be seen in the courtyard of the memorial. Hidden secrets off the tourist trail are great, but this is physically on one of the most popular tourist trails and not many people know about it... priceless.

humm, I might be mean, but I can't help think this is a shameful memory in french history....

I, apparently like many, walked right past it and never even noticed it was there. I saw a thousand things in Paris, but not this. Even went to Jim Morrison's grave and I'm not a big Doors fan. Sorry for myself that I missed it. Thanks for the walk through.

Can anyone offer me a small history lesson? Were the deprotations during or before the German occupation?

Can anyone offer me a small history lesson? Were the deprotations during or before the German occupation?

I found THIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France#20th_century) on Wikipedia.

amazing spaces and must be water cut precision on the stone.
slightly theatrical (some might say fake) content - like the names inscribed in "nazi" writing :wondering

I was stricken by the way the architect handled the textures and the color of the concrete. I was also taken by the flooring and the subtle detailing of corners and drainage, all clean and straightforward, as in a slaughterhouse, where you can't imagine the blood draining away (The channels of flowing water at La Villette were originally there to wash away the sludge from the large slaughterhouses located there) All too clean yet rough, almost harsh, finishes.

The route, requiring each visitor to walk down a very narrow staircase, where he is unable to grasp and anticipate the space he is heading to before reaching it. You arrive at a yard or patio whereas you must turn about to approach a narrow opening to a dark hall within.

Stark, solemn and silent, this is a powerful and memorable space.

Other images

One of the more peaceful place of the capital city!

I was given this brochure by a friend who highly recommended me the place for my trip to Paris in Sept.