This was a really great day in the most beautiful city! We only did two things, but they were really interesting stops. We started the morning by taking a taxi about 20-30 minutes out to the suburb of Drancy. (We've learned through our many years of traveling that time is more important than money, and sometimes it's worth paying more to take a taxi instead of a series of metro and bus connections.)
***If you don't want to read about the Holocaust transit camp we visited, skip down to where it says Basilica of St. Denis.
DRANCY CAMP - Drancy is the site of a little known aspect of the Holocaust, both because it's in France and there's less info on French Jews in the Holocaust and also because the French government refused to acknowledge what happened for so long that no one spoke out about it until after many, many years had gone by. But thanks to the novel, Sarah's Key, there has been a lot more interest in it and several non-fiction works have been published recently. We visited the site where there is a large memorial sculpture and a Shoah Memorial Educational Center.
The sculpture is located in the middle of a small park and the buildings of the Drancy camp are located around it. There is also a replication of a cattle car used to deport the Jews; it was added later. The sculpture is very interesting and very powerful.
Here is an explanation of the site from http://www.northeastern.edu/drancy/today/. "The three granite columns [of the sculpture] represent the Hebrew letter shin with its multiple meanings - it can stand for the name of God, "shaddai," and for the flame of divine revelation; it is the symbol used in the mezuzah that is affixed next to the doors of Jewish homes. The seven steps leading up to the columns represent the elevation of the souls of the victims, and also the seven degrees of hell that they had to undergo before they can pass through the gates of death, which are symbolized by the two lateral columns."
"In the center column, the tortured human figures number exactly 10 - the number required for a minyan, or quorum for prayer, while the head, coif, and beard on the two frontal figures are meant to make up the Hebrew letters lamed (30) and vav (6). These numbers make up the number 36, which Jewish tradition associates with the number of just people necessary for the continued existence of the world. A figure in the center wears a special accoutrement for prayer (Tefilin) on his forehead."
"In 1988 a solitary train car of the type used in the deportations was added in the center of the U-shaped complex, with a rail leading down from Selinger's memorial. This car attests to Drancy's place, in the words of filmmaker Cécile Clairval, as "the last stage before the abyss." Inside the car are informational exhibits about the deportations."
"In the 1990s, commemorative plaques were installed that finally mentioned the complicity of the French State. In 1993, a plaque was installed by the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) that names "the French State of Vichy" as responsible for the deportations of "thousands of Jews, Gypsies, and foreigners." In July 1993 another plaque commemorated the first celebration of "the National Day of Commemoration of the Racist and Anti-Semitic Persecutions Committed under the de facto Authority called 'Government of the French State' (1940-1944)."
Drancy was the site of a transit camp for almost all French Jews that were rounded up for deportation. It was basically a holding camp where they experienced terrible conditions until they were deported to a death camp, usually Auschwitz. The camp was created in a U-shaped public housing complex that was unfinished at the time the Germans took over France. So the detainees were housed in a multi-level apartment complex that really only had walls, a floor, stairs, and wooden bunks. There was no electricity, running water (except in the administrative building), sheets, blankets, or anything for the first Jews who arrived in 1941. They slept on the wooden slats of the bunks or the floor without sheets, blankets, or even straw. There were hoses that ran up the building and into certain apartments for a little bit of drinking water. Jews first arrived in August 1941 and did not get to shower at all until the end of Sept. From then on they received a shower once every two weeks. There was of course not enough food, and for the first several months they were completely confined to their rooms (except for the shower). They weren't even allowed out to walk in the courtyard at first. This eased up after a few months as more detainees arrived and it became more crowded.
Starting in Dec. 1941, the SS members in charge of the camp began retaliating against the prisoners for acts committed by the French Resistance in areas all over France. They would randomly choose five or 20 or whatever number of Jews they wanted and shoot them as punishment for what the Resistance was doing to the German army.
New prisoners arrived daily from all over France, but for the first year it was only men. Then, with the Vel d'Hive roundup of Aug. 1942, women and children arrived, as well as men. 10,000 new detainees arrived in the fall of 1942 alone. Eventually, between 70,000 to 80,000 Jews were imprisoned here between 1941 and 1944. The children were separated from their parents and kept in a separate dormitory area of the housing complex with a female supervisor. Some of them were so young they didn't know their own names and had a string tied around their neck with a piece of paper hanging from it and their name scribbled on it.
Eventually the commandant eased up on some of the restrictions and allowed outdoor access in the courtyard and packages from the outside world once a month, but it came at a price. He pitted Jews against each other by offering them different work roles in the camp, some of which had better perks than others. He also escalated the random violence in the form of beatings, executions, etc.
Every so often a certain number of prisoners would be deported to Auschwitz, freeing up room for new arrivals. Some Jews were supposed to be exempt from deportation (married to a non-Jew, under age 16, over age 55, etc.), but these rules were often applied at the whimsy of the commandant, and for the last two years of the camp all prisoners were eligible for deportation. The documentation shows that roughly 80-90% of the Jews at Drancy were sent on to Auschwitz and only about 4% (2,500ish) survived.
We learned so much more information at the Shoah educational center, but it's just too much to write here. It's a brand new center that just opened about eight months ago, and it is one of the most impressive Holocaust museums we've been to. It's not a museum in the traditional sense; it doesn't have many artifacts at all. It's just a large white room with about six or seven white, free-standing walls in it. Each wall has small video screens in one side, and photos and a few artifacts and info. on the other side. It's very minimalist, but the videos were outstanding. There are probably 15 different five minute videos that we watched, and each one contained information about a certain part of the camp's history. The most powerful part, though, was that each video also included survivor testimony and we could listen to them translated in English. It is very small and spare compared to most modern Holocaust centers, but it was one of the most powerful we've ever been to. I was frantically trying to type notes on my iPhone as I listened to the videos, and then I'd go back and replay them again so I could actually watch them instead of typing notes. I felt like I just couldn't absorb the information quickly enough because, as I said before, neither one of us has studied much about French Jews at all.
Security was VERY tight again, and this time there was actually a museum employee who personally walked us up to the 3rd floor exhibit and then sat on a chair in the corner for the entire two hours we were there. She wasn't looking at us like we were going to destroy something, but it was her job to watch whenever any tourists are there so that nothing is disturbed, no pictures are taken, and also to answer our questions. She was very nice and polite, but it was just something we hadn't seen before. (Actually, that's not true. We have seen it in some of the famous art museums where they have a person sitting in each room making sure that none of the art is touched.) We weren't allowed to take any photos, except from the big window that looked down over the former camp (housing complex) and memorial. Shortly after the war, the camp returned to its original role of public housing for people with low income, and its history as a concentration camp was pretty much ignored. It took 32 years before the memorial sculpture was put up and 68 years for the Shoah educational center to be opened.
This was a very heavy and difficult stop, but it was so important for us to see this place and learn about it. By passing this on to you and our students, we are helping to keep the memory of these victims alive. After this mournful stop, we headed to the Basilica of St. Denis.
Basilica of St. Denis - This church is three things: 1. It's a church because it has a local parish and weekly services. 2. It's a basilica because it's been a pilgrimage site for hundreds of years (people coming to see the shrine of St. Denis who was beheaded by the Romans). 3. It's been a cathedral since the 1960s when it became the bishop's seat for its area. This is a beautiful cathedral that I've wanted to see since our last trip to Paris a few years ago because it is the burial site for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It is much bigger than I thought it would be, but after learning about it today, I realize why it's so important. It's not only the burial site for Louis and Marie, but for most all of the other past Kings of France.
Here are all the pictures. A lot of them are similar to ones you've seen from other churches, only this time there are pictures of some of the kings' tombs.
This is the tomb of Dagobert, the first Christian French king.
This is down in the crypt where Louis XVI and some of the other Bourbon kings are buried.
This is a memorial for Louis XVII, the dauphin and son of Louis XVI. When Louis XVI was executed, the royalists declared the little boy Louis XVII even though he never actually reigned. And sadly, he died just a couple years later from an illness, although there was an ongoing scandal about the possibility that he escaped. However, that is false because below his picture you can see an urn that contains his heart. They ran DNA tests on it a few years ago, and it conclusively belongs to the family of Marie Antoinette.
Here's the pic of Louis XVI's tomb, and Marie Antoinette's is below.
This is the tomb of Henry II and Catherine d'Medici. They are pictured almost naked and lying dead in the center, and then they're pictured clothed and kneeling in prayer above the pillars (in black stone).
Here's a separate memorial erected for Louis XVI and Marie by his brother Louis XVIII who came to power after Napoleon.
By the time we finished at St. Denis it was about 3:00 and we were starving. So we picked up a couple of baguette sandwiches and apricot tartlets and took the metro to the Jardin de Tuileries (Tuileries Garden), which is the long, beautiful park that leads to the Louvre. Created by Catherine de Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the French Revolution. It is located between the Place de la Concorde (where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded) and the Louvre Museum. ((The Louvre is the u-shaped building at the top of the garden in this picture, and the Place de la Concorde is the tall obelisk at the bottom of the picture.))
It's a wonderful place to relax because it has hundreds and hundreds of chairs spread throughout the park. There's always an empty one for you! We have relaxed here many times since our first trip 10 years ago. That first time we had just stopped at an English bookstore so I could buy the just published Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and we stopped at the first park we found, The Tuileries, so I could read the first couple of chapters. Ever since then we've stopped here whenever we needed to rest our weary feet and just enjoy the view. When there's no construction in the way, you can see from the Louvre at one end to the Place de la Concorde at the other and then all the way up the Champs Élysées to theArc d'Triumphe.. The picture below is one we took on our first trip 10 years ago.
Here's a picture of our poor, tired feet propped up on chairs in the park! :-)
After hanging out here for a couple of hours and having our late lunch/early dinner, we headed back to home sweet home, the Rue Cler!
The Rue Cler is a pedestrian street that we've stayed on every time we've been to Paris. It's absolutely perfect and beautiful and so Parisian. Within 100 yards of our hotel are a Boulangerie (bakery), crepe shop, flower shop, several cafes and brasseries, wine cellars, a fresh fruit and vegetable stand, a fish and meat store, and my favorite - a fromagerie (cheese store). I told my family that we could spend our entire week on this street and never want for anything, except seeing the sights of course! Here are a few pics of our favorite street in the world!
This is a delicious gelato shop that we first found in Strasbourg; we were delighted to find another one here on the Rue Cler!
This is the creperie right across from our hotel. We get an oef (egg), jambon (ham) and fromage (cheese) crepe every morning for breakfast as we head out for the day. It's a great "to-go" meal.
That's it for tonight! Tomorrow is another day of exploring this beautiful city! I can't wait!!
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