Drancy, last step before the abyss
18
JULY
2012
Special Mention of the Jury - Festival International du Film d’Histoire - Pessac – 2002
Drancy internment camp, located in the northern suburbs of Paris, was the starting point for convoys of deportation of Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek and Sobibor.
This was the last stage before the abyss...
Over the 76,000 deported Jews of France, 63,170 Jews have been interned at the Drancy camp. In 1945, there were less than 3% survivors.
To understand the history of the Drancy camp, the before-Drancy is to be mentioned: trace the succession of persecutions that led Jews of all nationalities, of all conditions, of all ages; learn how, at this time, they were denied their nationality, their citizenship and until any right to be human, namely that those who were arrested for resistance have ceased to be recognized and treated as such, as soon as they were identified as Jews.
The history of this camp is told by the internees themselves, including six survivors of Birkenau, while archives sequences retrace the political context of that time and the role of collaboration.
The film evokes the fate of nearly 10,000 children deported and thrown upon their arrival in the gas chambers.
The Cantata"The Castle of the Fire", composed by Darius Milhaud in 1954 on a poem by Jean Cassou, expresses poignantly this drama of the deportation and extermination of children.
With the help of Serge Klarsfeld.
| Speaker | Location |
|---|---|
|
Cécile CLAIRVAL-MILHAUD (réalisatrice / film director) |
Auditorium |