Lyon, France has approved plans to build a Holocaust memorial in the city that already houses France’s major archive of the history of wartime resistance and deportation. It will be sited at Place Carnot, a major square in the city center.
The project has been under discussion for thirty years, starting at about the same time that the Center for the History of Resistance and Deportation opened in the former military medical center that served as headquarters for Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo ‘Butcher of Lyon.’ Under German occupation, large numbers of Jews were deported from Lyon to concentration camps.
The memorial project has grants totaling €225,000 lined up from local and regional governments. The city has agreed to an additional grant, and private funds will also be sought.
A competition to design the memorial will be launched in 2023, with the goal being to create a “significant work of art” of a “certain size” that would hold the eye “of the passer-by” and “challenge them.”
