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Second World War: France commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Izieu roundup
The 80th anniversary of the Liberation of France is celebrated on Sunday April 7. The president is expected at the house in Izieu, in Ain, where 44 Jewish children were rounded up by the Gestapo. All were deported and murdered.
(France 2)
The 80th anniversary of the Liberation of France is celebrated on Sunday April 7. The president is expected at the house in Izieu, in Ain, where 44 Jewish children were rounded up by the Gestapo. All were deported and murdered.
“Why them and why not me?” Samuel Pintel, a child from the Izieu household, still asks himself this question, 80 years after escaping the Gestapo roundup. Now the house has become a memorial. In 1944, dozens of Jewish children were hidden there. Samuel was then 6 years old. He mentions in particular “Childhood moments that are not pleasant”.
The memory of the children of Izieu
Izieu’s house had become a refuge under collaborationist Vichy France. In three years, the Gestapo deported tens of thousands of Jews. To save their children, some sent them to Izieu’s house. “Luckily this house takes me in, takes us in, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened”, notes Samuel Pintel. For a year, the children were protected from raids until they were denounced. On April 6, 1944, the Gestapo arrived at Izieu’s house.
The 44 children and their 7 supervisors were deported. Only one person will return alive from Auschwitz (Poland). If, by some miracle, Samuel Pintel escaped this roundup, it was thanks to his neighbors who came to pick him up two months earlier. Samuel Pintel’s wish is to pass this story on from generation to generation, so that the memory of Izieu’s children never fades away.
