Friday March 10 was another mixed weather today. Sun and blue sky until early afternoon, then cloudy with rain starting just before 7:00 p.m. High of 15C.
After we picked up some provisions and wandered down some new streets, we headed out for a visit to the Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation, which was about a 30 minute walk from the apartment, on the other side of the Rhône River.
We walked through the adjacent Place Antonin-Poncet which is a square located between Place Bellecour and the Rhône. It is bordered by a hotel which replaced the Hôpital de la Charité. The bell tower is the only remaining part of the original hospital which had been designed in 1622 and demolished in 1934 to make way for the Post Office building. At that time, it was the second largest hospital in Lyon and was more of a hospice than a hospital. The square is named after a doctor, Antonin Poncet (1849-1913). The Post Office was built between 1935 and 1938 in an almost identical style to the classical 18th century facades of the buildings on the north side of the square.
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| Clocher de la Charité (Bell Tower)- built in 1665-66 |
Adjacent to the Bell Tower is an Armenian Genocide Memorial. It was erected in 2006 in memory of the victims of the 1915 genocide. It incudes 36 white concrete pieces with stones from Armenia. Poems by Kostan Zarian are written on the concrete pieces. Two-thirds of the cost of the Memorial was provided by the Armenian community of Lyon. The Municipality provided the remainder of the funds and the project was supported by the Mayor. There have been protests by the Turkish community of France regarding its construction. A court case to stop the construction did not succeed. It has also been vandalised in the past.
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Memorial Lyonnais du genocide des Armeniens, 2006. Leonardo Basmadyian, architect
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| The square |
We passed a few notices for the Saturday March 11 demonstration in Place Bellecour.
We walked over to the entrance of the pool and found out it was the City of Lyon "Centre Nautique Tony Bertrand". A very nice facility with a warm water pool.
We walked about five minutes further and arrived at the Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation which is located in part of the former École de Santé Militaire (Military Medical School) which opened in 1895 after being constructed between 1888 and 1894. During WWI, the building was used as an additional medical surgical hospital. Students returned to the school in 1919. With the declaration of war on September 3, 1939, the students set off in field ambulances, experiencing the six weeks of the Battle of France.
Lyon's first occupation by the Germans did not result in any damage to the school, which was first used as an artillery store by the German army. It reopened its doors on July 7 1940 to medical students, though it lost its military status. In November 1942, in a now occupied Lyon, the Germans moved into two of the wings. In February 1943, the Germans took over the entire building. The students had to leave. The Gestapo moved into the building in Spring 1943 and it became Gestapo headquarters until the bombardments of May 26, 1944.
The head of the Gestapo in Lyon was Klaus Barbie, "The Butcher of Lyon". The building became the interrogation centre for members of the Resistance and Jews arrested by the German police. Incarcerated in Montluc Prison, detainees were brought to Gestapo headquarters, where they were brutally tortured. Many summary executions were carried out on the premises.
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| Two sides of the building--- the Centre is on the left side and part of the University is located in the building with the blue banner. |
The Centre was opened on October 15, 1992 by the deputy-mayor of Bordeaux, deputy-mayor of Lyon and Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace prize winner and survivor).
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| Entrance to the Centre |
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| Plaques on the side of the building- in homage of the Jews of Rhône |
tortured and executed, deported and murdered in 1942-44.
There was a picture and a bust of Jean Moulin, a hero of the French Resistance, in the entrance of the Centre.
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| Jean Moulin |
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| Jean Moulin (1899-1943), Unificateur de la Resistance (Unifier of the Resistance) |
The main part of the Centre was on the second floor. While we were visiting, there were a number of school groups passing through, taking notes. It is a well-used teaching centre.
We were given a large booklet with English translations of the display notes and much more. The displays started with the history of the Military Medical School which opened in 1888 and finally closed as a Medical School in 1981.
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| Early days of the school |
There was a section about Klaus Barbie becoming head of the Gestapo in Lyon.
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| Klaus Barbie (on left- around 1940) |
There were a number of videos with people who survived the war.
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This interview was fascinating-- she worked at the military post office in the building. She managed to get Gestapo codes for money being received at the post office.
There were some pictures of the bombing of the Military Medical School and the surrounding area. In the spring of 1944, France was an important target for the Allies who increased their bombing of major rail communication nodes. On May 26, 1944, there were 180 aircraft involved in a raid, the objective of which was to bomb a number of railway installations. They only achieved a partial hit on the target, and instead killed or wounded almost 2000 victims. The facade of the Medical School was completely destroyed. The Gestapo were forced to move to 32 Place Bellecour, where they continued their horrific practices until the city was liberated on September 3, 1944.
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| Bombing damage in the neighbourhood and the Military Medical School (Gestapo headquarters) |
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| Klaus Barbie at his trial in 1987 |
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| Sabine Zlatin by Rene Diaz. She testified at the trial. |
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| The special courtroom at the Palais de Justice |
We interrupted our tour of the permanent exhibit to watch a 45 minute film that had excerpts from the Klaus Barbie 1987 trial. It was an excellent summary, with some very harrowing testimony; statements from the judge and prosecutors; and a closing few statements by Barbie. The pre-trial proceedings had lasted four years, and involved hearing a very large number of witnesses.
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| Judge notes that the trial has been anticipated since Barbie's extradition in February 1983. |
At the beginning of the trial, Barbie decided to leave the courtroom. The judge noted that while the law gave him the right to refuse to be there, "today he is shameful Nazi who no longer dares face his past".
The case against Barbie focused on three events:
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| February 9 1943 police roundup and arrest of 70 people at the French Israelite Union |
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April 6, 1944 arrest and deportation of 44 Jewish children and 7 adults from the Izieu children's home.
(I wrote about this in an earlier blog) |
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| The deportation of more than 600 people in the final convoy which left Lyon on August 11, 1944 |
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| This woman testified about being tortured by Barbie. |
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| Sabina Zlakin's testimony about the Izieu children's home arrests and deportation was very powerful. |
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| Leib Reitman was a medical student at the children's home who managed to escape. He testified that when his sister, who was a doctor at the children's home, arrived at Auschwitz with her son and the other children, she chose to go with her son and the children to the gas chambers. |
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| Barbie remaining silent when asked whether he wanted to comment on testimony |
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Geneviève de Gaulle testified about how they were no longer treated as human beings,
and what it was like in the cattle cars en route to the camps. |
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| Elie Wiesel also gave testimony about the importance of remembering. |
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| At the end of the trial, Barbie was asked if he had anything to say in his defence. |
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"I never conducted the Izieu roundup" (however, there was clear evidence
that he ordered and authorised it) |
Subtle wording to evade responsibility
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The prosecutor had asked for life imprisonment (the death penalty had been abolished in France) while Barbie's lawyer asked for an acquittal. After 6.5 hours of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict of life imprisonment. It was the first time in France that someone had been convicted of crimes against humanity. Barbie died from cancer in prison in 1991.
After the film, we went back to finish the permanent exhibit.
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There was a section on the 1940 occupation of Lyon, before the Vichy government took over. On June 19, 1940, the Germans entered the city. On June 22, the conditions of the armistice signed with Germany were that Lyon was to be situated in the unoccupied zone as of July 7. The main national newspapers (Le Figaro and others) relocated to Lyon. It also became a refuge for Jews and others fleeing occupied France.
However, from October 1940, Jews in the occupied zone were obliged to have their identity cards stamped with the word "Jew". This measure was introduced in the southern zone in December 1942. This followed the November 11, 1942 Germans invasion of the southern zone which began the second occupation of Lyon.
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| In the streets of Lyon 1940 |
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| 1940 armistice- La Nouvelliste was a collaborationist newspaper |
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| Posters during the war |
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| Call for resistance July 14, 1942 |
There was a large section about Jean Moulin, recognised as one of the main heroes of the French Resistance. Moulin came from an educated republican southern French family. He served as a
sous-pré
fect and
préfect and held a number of ministerial posts. He was removed from his post by the Vichy government in November 1940 and moved to the south, establishing contact with the first seeds of resistance. He reached London in October 1941, where he joined forces with General Charles de Gaulle. He was entrusted by de Gaulle to unite the Resistance, principally from Lyon, where in 1942, the three main non-communist movements in the southern zone came together. It took a lot of planning and ingenuity but the final step in unification came in spring 1943, with the creation of the National Resistance Council.
There was a fragment of Jean Moulin's parachute from the night of January 1-2, 1942, when he parachuted into Les Alpilles, in Provence to bring the main Resistance movements in the non-occupied zone together and to have them accept the authority of General de Gaulle. The parachute, kept by a teacher in Avignon until the Liberation, was handed over to the precursor of this museum.
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| Fragment of Jean Moulin's parachute |
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| Jean Moulin |
Moulin returned to London in February 1943. He left London on March 21, 1943 and returned to France. On June 21, he was betrayed and arrested with fellow Resistance leaders in a suburb of Lyon. They were taken to Montluc Prison in Lyon and tortured by Klaus Barbie at Gestapo headquarters. He was beaten so badly that he was in a coma. Moulin was transferred to Paris, and died on July 8, 1943 without having revealed what he knew, in the train taking him to Germany. His ashes were placed in the Panthéon in 1964.
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| Resistance members |
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| The Gestapo-- Barbie in the photo |
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| Places of Repression in Lyon 1942-44 |
There were pictures and information about all the different groups in the resistance and in the groups that were complicit with the Nazis.
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| La Milice Française was a paramilitary fascist organisation created on January 30, 1943 by the Vichy regime, with German aid, to help fight against the French Resistance. Its formal head was Prime Minister Pierre Laval, although its Chief of operations and de facto leader was Secretary General Joseph Darnand. It participated in summary executions and help round up Jews and members of the resistance for deportation. |
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| Book of the names of the members of Resistance from France that were deported to concentration camps. There are 86,000 names in the book. |
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| The story of the children's home in Izieu |
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| Stairs down to the basement cells. |
We returned to the main floor and walked through a small temporary exhibit about Madeleine Riffaud
(b. August 23, 1924), a French poet, journalist, war correspondent and a member of the Resistance. She joined the Resistance at 18 and participated in several operations against the Nazis. On July 23, 1944, she became famous for the killing of a German officer, whom she shot dead in broad daylight on a bridge overlooking the Seine. She was captured by a French collaborator, handed over to the Gestapo and tortured. She was released in a prisoner exchange just after a date was set for her execution. She returned to fight in the Resistance.
She became a journalist in 1945 and reported on the Algerian War. In 1946, she met with Ho Chi Minh in Paris and vowed to devote her life to Vietnam. She moved to South Vietnam and lived with the Viet Cong resistance for seven years. She returned to France and worked as a nursing assistant in a Paris hospital. She was awarded the National Order of Merit (France) in 2013. Picasso drew her portrait for a book of poetry she published. She also published an account of her time in the Resistance in 1994.
The exhibit was done in a graphic format with photos. There was a brief video at the end of the exhibit. What an incredible life. She is 98 years old.
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| Poster for the exhibit |
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| Events of 1940 |
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Attack on a train
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| Her codename was Rainer- nom de guerre |
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| Tortured, Imprisoned |
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| Time in Vietnam |
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| The creators of the Exhibit--Madeleine Riffaud, Jean David Morgan and Dominique Bertail |
The Centre is a great teaching resource and the permanent exhibit is very well done. It is very powerful to have the Centre in the former Gestapo headquarters. So many people tortured and executed there. Never Again is a clear message.
A few blocks away the Citroën building, built from 1930-32 . There was a plaque on the outside which noted that "in this spot, 25 Citroën workers, members of the Resistance, were arrested on Sept 20 and 21, 1943 by the Germans, and then deported. Eight died in concentration camps, one disappeared, and 16 returned to Lyon in 1945."
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| Outside the Citroën building |
We started our walk back to the apartment, and stopped at Slake, the coffee shop near Place des Jacobins.
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| Always busy |
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| Great coffee and excellent vegan banana bread |
We wandered a bit more, stopped to buy some chicken from a butcher near our apartment and then we went to a wine store. We got back at 6:45 p.m., just as it was starting to rain. Alain made a trout dinner with potatoes, zucchini and a green salad. A lovely glass of red wine from the region and a piece of the red praline brioche for dessert with cardamon tea.
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