the Vel d’Hiv roundup seen by Cabu at the Shoah Memorial

To bring them out of oblivion, the gestures are precise, delicate. To the extent of the importance of these 16 drawings by Cabu, where the shadow threatens. Rough drawings, “like so many punches in the face“, he said. Under his pen, one of the most tragic episodes of the Occupation: the Vel d’Hiv roundup. For his wife, who found and collected these sketches, Cabu thus gives a face to the victims . “These drawings, they are a page of history, and he made them with all his talent, his graphic vision of things“, declares Véronique Cabu. They are exhibited at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, until November 7.

On July 16 and 17, 1942, at 5 a.m., Parisian police knocked on the doors of Jewish families. Nearly 13,000 people were arrested, including 4,000 children, mostly parked at the Vélodrome d’Hiver, not far from the Eiffel Tower (Paris). Of this raid, there remains a photo. “We have no visual representation of what happened inside the Vel d’Hiv, we only have testimonies“, specifies Laurent Joly, director of research at the CNRS. Assassinated in 2015 in the attack against Charlie Hebdo, Cabu leaves behind his drawings for History.