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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLESMémoire et Education

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Should the echo of their voices

weaken, we shall perish 

“”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 deportationcamp in Provence

Opened in September 1939 in a tile-factory located between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille,“Camp des Milles” was in activity formore than three years and wasopened even before Germanoccupation. It rapidly filled up withmore than 10,000 prisoners from 27 countries with a large partcoming from Germany and Austria.

Its history can be divided intoseveral phases corresponding todifferent classes of prisoners whostayed there: national “enemies”,illegal aliens seeking to emigrate,Jews captured and rounded up aspart of the "Nazi Final Solution"supported by the Vichy regime.

An interesting feature of this campwas the high number of intellectualsand artists who developed an activecultural life creating many worksthere.

Among others who were detained inthe camp were famous painters orwriters like Max Ernst, LionFeuchtwanger, Hans Bellmer orAlfred Kantorowicz, Golo Mann,Nobel laureates, politicians fromGermany, Austria, Italy and formermembers of the InternationalBrigades in Spain.

Through these different phases, onecan see the tragic developments inthe repression against foreignersand refugees under the Vichy regime.A process which then culminated inAugust and September 1942 withthe deportation of more than 2,000Jews, men, women and children toAuschwitz.

Courageous men and womenoffered their help to the prisoners.Some of these people have beenrecognized "Righteous Among theNations" by Israel. These includeRev. Henry Manen, guardian AugusteBoyer and their wives.

“... Young fathers and mothers silentlyweeping helpless to console thesuffering of their children. The orderwas then given to leave the camp andboard the train ...” Rev Henry Manen,before a convoy at ‘Camp des Milles’September 2, 1942.

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

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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“I am convinced that ‘Camp des Milles’ will become animportant, indeed veryimportant place for the nextcenturies…”

(Elie Wiesel, 2006)

The project of “Camp des MillesMemorial” aims to save, equip andopen to the public the onlyremaining French concentration anddeportation camp still preservedamong 240 WWII ones ; it still hasvisible and striking traces from the past.

This site is part of a particularlypainful period in the history of

Mankind. It is thus an essential partof European culture and Worldheritage.

The project represents theculmination of a 30 yearscommemorative path with theobjective of developing a Memorialfor civic education and culture. A particular emphasis will be placedon this goal.

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

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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

A project for Memory, Citizen Education and Culture

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The three faces of the project:

• Restoration, preservation andopening to the public of thehistorical premises having beenused for concentration anddeportation (15,000 m2 of buildingsand 60,000 m2 of grounds). This is notably the tile-factory itself which was the maininternment building.

• Historical information on thedifferent periods of “Camp desMilles”, as well as on its national,European and World contexts.

• Civic and cultural education, basednot only on the historical site itselfbut also on the various scientificand artistic works made since thewar on relevant topics. Thepurpose is to provide visitors, andspecially young visitors, with toolsfor vigilance and resistance.Therefore the aim is to bringpeople with scientific keys ofunderstanding about the Holocaust

and other genocides as much asabout totalitarianism and fanaticism.

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

Major advantages:• A relevant place to illustrate

French collaborationistgovernment's policy of exclusionand repression during WWII, thesteps leading up to the Holocaustand the difficulties of maintainingits memory.

• A unique place in France sinceCamp des Milles has been so wellpreserved. It offers an exceptionalopportunity to see paintings leftbehind by the many artists whowere prisoners in the camp.

• An original educational and culturalmemorial project, with aninnovative exhibition intending to

show not only the variousindividual and collective processesto intolerance but also the variousforms of resistance to these spirals.

• An exceptional interest aboutCamp des Milles Memorial, yearsbefore its opening, in France andabroad, from the large community,the media, the teachers, theresearchers, the students and fromall the groups under defamation orracism.

• A project located in a 2 millionspeople area, a very importanttourist region, and a denseinfrastructure network(motorways, international airport, Aix /Marseille TGV train-stations...).

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

... for today and the future

05”Student testimonies

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

Hajira“

FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES Mémoire et Education

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After battles during thirty years topreserve the site and to create the“Camp des Milles Memorial”, aSteering Committee was establishedin 2002, uniting various public, privateand associative partners. Its mainobjective was to establish a Memorialfor cultural and civic education. The Association "Camp des MillesMemorial" was created to managethis project.

At the end of 2003 the committeedeveloped a frame defining goals overseveral years period. It establishedhow the site and its environmentshould be run, investment andworking objectives and the futuremanagement structure.

An international multidisciplinaryScientific Council guarantees thequality of project content.

A project management group, led by“Atelier November”, has beenworking since 2006 on thearchitectural and technicaldevelopment, as well as on itslandscaping and museum design.

On the 25th of February 2009, an Actfrom the Prime Minister, recognizesthe “Camp des Milles Foundation” asa public service establishment whosemission is to continue the operationinitiated by the Association. TheBoard of Directors is comprised ofthe public, private and associativepartners.

Alain Chouraqui was electedPresident and Serge Klarsfeld as Vice-president.

Sufficient funds were finally broughtto ensure the start of works and

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

Furthermore, the “Camp des MillesMemorial” is one of the flagshipprojects for the “Marseille-Provence,European Capital of Culture 2013”initiative, decided by the EuropeanUnion .

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Student testimonies

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“

A project coming from the community and the government

”

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FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES Mémoire et Education

“On August 26, 1942, at 5 o’clock in the morning,several policemen barge in (…). A young Polish refugeethrew herself out the window…The protestant Pastor(Manen), vouching for the authenticity of my baptismcertificate, has obtained from the camp authoritiesthat my name be taken off the list of persons to bedeported (…) That morning, the yard was empty, thetrain was still there (…) we were ordered to comedown. A man dressed in black, wearing boots, wholooked curiously like a SS…I believe the Chief ofPolice of Marseille (…) holding a sort of riding- whipthat 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 asuicide.The number of 50 fake marriages is perhapsunderestimated. I wrote to two boyfriends fromMarseille. They didn’t come! My friend Dieta and I, wehid in an oven (...) under the floor boards.”Testimony from Liselotte Karpfen

“We were about ten girls and boys between the agesof 15 and 18, kept hidden by the OSE that evening onthe 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… deportationafter being stripped of our belongings by the ReserveMobile Guards [Gardes Mobiles de Réserve]…Thetrip lasted eight to ten days across Germany, a realtorture (…) When we arrived in Upper Silesia, threehad died. Auschwitz…Gross-Rosen, forty-five monthsin the camp.” Testimony of Oscar Lusting

“Arrested at the Saint-Charles train station on August26, 1942, two policemen on bicycles…Miserable fare,filth, flees, bedbugs (…) pilfering of food… ourAmerican visas are destroyed. Deportees loaded upwhile beaten with rifle butts (…) Saved thanks to atelegram from a son enrolled in the Legion.” Professor Simon (Yad Vashem)

“I was only 13…We were arrested in the train by themilitia and taken to the Camp des Milles where therewas already a large crowd… We were sleeping onstraw mats on the floor. The beams of the room werecovered with bed bugs that attacked us at night... Oneday, my father, accompanied by a militia man, came tokiss me for the last time…I think illness prevented myparents’ escape by way of a tunnel.”Testimony of Félicie Awerbuch

WORDS FROM “CAMP DES MILLES”

DEPORTEES TO AUSCHWITZ

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

FONDATION DU CAMP DES MILLES Mémoire et Education

S t a t e - app roved founda t i on

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