Obj. ID: 44714
Jewish Architecture Holocaust Memorial Plaque in Avignon, France, 2010
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
The Jews of Vaucluse who were deported to nazi extermination camps from 1942 - 1944
Description
This memorial Plaque is set on a retaining wall on the path to the Jardin des Doms, just up the hill from the Monument aux Morts d'Avignon.
The Plaque is in fact a pair of rectangular tablets, but are inscribed in a way that they are meant to be regarded as a single memorial. At the top across both tablets is a title for the list of names, followed by the list itself, which has 422 entries including 54 children. A dedicatory text is inscribed at the bottom right corner of the right tablet.
Directly to the right of the memorial is a small plaque noting the French Republic commissioned the plaque, and who it is dedicated to.
Inscriptions
Main Plaque, in French
Juifs deportes du vacluse vers les camps nazis d'extermination entre 1942 et 1944
[List of names]
N'oublions pas les nombreux internes
juifs du Vacluse qui ont eu la chance
de survivre dans les camps franciais
notamment Drancy, Gurs, Les Milles,
Revesaltes ainsi que ceux qui se sont
échappés des trains les conduissant á la
déportation.
Translation: Jews deported from Vaucluse to the nazi extermination camps between 1942 and 1944 / [List of names] / Let's not forget the many interred Jews from Vaucluse who were able to survive in the French camps including Drancy, Gurs, Les Milles, and Revesaltes, as well as those who escaped from the trains deporting them.
Dedicatory Plaque, in French
La République Francaise
en hommage aux victimes
des persecutions
racistes et antisemites
et des crimes contre l'humanite
commis sous l'autorité de fait
dite "Gouvernement de l'E'tat Franciais"
(1940 - 1944)
n'oublions jamais
Translation: The French Republic / In tribute to the victims of the racist and antisemitic persecutions and crimes against humanity committed under the de facto authority known as the "Government of the French State" / (1940 - 1944) / Never Forget
Commissioned by
The French Republic
5 image(s)
sub-set tree:
This memorial plaque was unveiled in April of 2010 and was the first 'wall of names' erected in a public space in the country, according to Le Dauphine, a local news source.
The ceremony was attended by some 300 people; Jews and non-Jews, young and old, officials (including Prefect Francois Burdeyron)and citizens, as well as Holocaust survivors and the families of victims. During the ceremony, the names of the 54 children listed were read one by one by schoolchildren from the local area. Régine Lippe, a member of the association 'Les fils et filles des déportés juifs de France' (The sons and daughters of Jewish deportees from France), charged the public to "take the time to read their names. Your memory is their only burial place."
Bruno Tognarelli, who originated the idea for the monument said [translated from French]: "We non-Jews, if we forget, it will be a disaster. The Shoah is the story of the Jewish people, but I am a Jew when I think of the Shoah."
The location of the monument was possibly chosen to associate it with the Monument aux Morts d'Avignon, an older monument that also commemorates local citizens killed during the World Wars.
"Une plaque à la mémoire des 422 juifs déportés de Vaucluse dont 54 enfants" Homage (Le Dauphine Website), https://www.ledauphine.com/vaucluse/2010/04/24/une-plaque-a-la-memoire-des-422-juifs-deportes-de-vaucluse-dont-54-enfants (accessed March 15, 2023)