This April 6, took place at the Maison d’Izieu in Ain, the commemorations of the 78th anniversary of the roundup of 44 Jewish children and 7 adults from the Colony of Izieu, ordered by Klaus Barbie, with the complicity of Vichy . Until 1994, Sabine Zlatin, who had founded the “Colonie d’Izieu” with her husband Miron, carefully preserved the letters and drawings of these children sent to die at Auschwitz, before entrusting them to the BnF. Classified since “national treasures”, these unique documents return to Izieu for an exhibition entitled Carefree colors.
Few traces remain of these moments, and in this case, they are unique traces of what the children who were deported experienced.
Laurence EngelPresident of the National Library of France
Cowboys, Indians, airplanes and elephants, a tiger or polar bear hunt. Children’s drawings that send us back to carelessness and that moved the first visitors to the exhibition, invited for the commemorations of this April 6th. Like Roger Wolman, welcomed here, with his older brother and his cousin, for a few weeks in October-November 1943, five months before the roundup: “It’s a lot, a lot of emotion. I found that these kids had a huge talent, graphics and coloring. There are two or three of them, they are masterpieces. I have an admiring look“.
Another distinguished guest, Serge Klarsfeld, who lent three drawings and two letters to his parents by Georgy Halpern for the exhibition. Documents of inestimable historical value which are exhibited in the dark to preserve them from light.
For these children, it was a compensation for their anxieties, these cowboy dreams, these dreams of a life, it was an escape.
The Maison d’Izieu in Ain is open from February to November. Full price: 12 euros / reduced: 10 euros. Free for children under 10.