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The Holocaust memorial will see the light of day.
The association which carries the project to create this place of memory in the city of Jean Moulin, but also the one where Klaus Barbie took place and was judged, has just officially launched a major artistic competition to imagine what this should be. memorial.
The members of the association behind the project want this competition to be “
national and international in scope and open as widely as possible
”.
"
We want to leave the candidates complete freedom, which must however be respectful of the symbol
," added Jean-Marie Chanon, former president and deputy mayor of Lyon.
And to add: “
this memorial cannot be abstract.
It must catch the eye and the mind immediately, be accessible to all and teach.
“In 2019, during the launch of the fundraising campaign, Jean-Olivier Viout, Honorary Attorney General of Lyon, assured that he wanted an artistic gesture “
à la
Jeff Koons
”.
"
Yes, you need something remarkable.
It doesn't have to be something that goes all over the place, but it has to be memorable, say something
,” he says today.
Location of the future Shoah memorial in Lyon.
Association for the construction of a Shoah memorial in Lyon
The association nevertheless imposed some technical constraints on artists and architects wishing to respond to the call for projects.
This monument must be visible from all points of Place Carnot, which borders Perrache station, and must be accessible to allow unhindered meditation, gatherings and commemorations.
Lyon, capital of French torments
As a symbol, this announcement was made this Friday morning from the Center for the History of Resistance and Deportation (Lyon 7th), by Jean-Olivier Viout, Attorney General of Lyon and Deputy Attorney General Pierre Truche during the trial Barbie in 1987. “
We are in a place of contemplation, of silence, because a place of memory that has stopped time and bears its weight.
This place, 80 years ago in a few weeks, was going to be the place of the interrogations of Jean Moulin who began his path to death here.
This place requisitioned by Klaus Barbie, to make it the headquarters of his Gestapo, where so many men and women simply guilty of being Jews experienced here the first stage of their sacrificial destiny towards the final solution
“began the former prosecutor.
Lyon, both capital of the resistance and headquarters of the Gestapo.
It was also during the Barbie trial that the French courts for the first time placed the Holocaust among the crimes against humanity.
For Jean-Pierre Viout, this monument should neither be an "
institutional
" memorial, nor that
of "a community
", but a place "
transcendent to bring together all sensibilities, beliefs, opinions and affiliations of all kinds
".
And to continue: “
because there are issues that force us to throw away what divides us.
Whichever project is chosen, it will carry only a message “
In memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, including one and a half million children (1933-1945).
6100 came from our region
”.
Symbol still, this place of memory will be installed near the Perrache station, place of departure of the Jews of the region towards the death camps.
Controversies and concord
Grégory Doucet, Mayor of Lyon, and Laurent Wauquiez, President of the Regional Council greeted each other with the tips of their fingers, without a glance this morning.
Last week, the two men had opposed concerning the holding of a round table, finally canceled on the 30 years of the Oslo agreements between Israel and Palestine.
A controversy that led to the departure of the Chief Rabbi of Lyon from an interreligious dialogue group created by the city, before, a few days later, the name of the mayor of Lyon was hissed by the Jewish community on Remembrance Day of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp.
But the time was not for a confrontation between the two men even if the president of the region insisted, without naming anyone, on "
the duty which imposes on elected officials to be very vigilant in the face of anything that can feed the anti-
Semitism
”.
“
This story is not just history and it's terrible to tell yourself.
This anti-Semitism still exists today.
In France, one in two Jews say they have been insulted for their religion and one in five Jews say they have been attacked for this reason
,” he added.
“
Today, it is important to speak only from memory,
reacted for his part Grégory Doucet
.
Because memory is a subject on which we must be united and let nothing pass in the face of anti-Semitism and racism so that they retreat
.
Jean-Olivier Viout praised the work of communities working hand in hand for the creation of this memorial and applauded the two elected officials.
Of the 500,000 euros needed to create the memorial, 392,000€ have already been collected, including 150,000€ from the region, 75,000€ from the city of Lyon and 75,000€ from metropolitan France.
The Lyon municipality will also bear the cost of moving the statue which currently sits on the site of the future memorial.
A monument that the association hopes to inaugurate on January 27, 2025 for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp.
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