Paris – The Deportation Martyrs Memorial - 4me

Plate XXXV - The Deportation Martyrs Memorial - Entrance… 

DEDICATED TO THE LIVING MEMORY OF THE 200,000 FRENCH DEPORTEES SLEEPING IN THE NIGHT AND THE FOG, EXTERMINATED IN THE NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS.

Stark.

That one word describes this memorial created on the site of an old mortuary on the Île de la Cité. It commemorates the lost lives of the 200,000 men, women and children deported through Vichy to the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. Designed by Georges-Henri Pingusson, the memorial was opened in 1962. 

Deliberately created, a feeling of claustrophobia envelopes the visitor entering the subterranean cavern, lined with 200,000 illuminated crystals. An eternal flame of hope burns before the Tomb of the Unknown Deportee.

Forgive, but never forget.