« In my “work of remembrance” I put all my effort, as we all should, into young people. To show them the horrors they could be lead to, as many of their forebears were. To show what happens when there is inaction in the face of injustice, exclusion and barbarity. In this ‘“work of remembrance” we must also remind young people that the executioners were ordinary people, just like any of us. So, we must be vigilant as to how we respond to others, so we do not in turn become their executioners. » 

Sam BRAUN

‘Remembering the deportations’

The website « Mémoires des déportations » (Remembering the Deportations) has been up since March 2017. This remarkable endeavour was put together by the UDA - Union des Déportés d’Auschwitz (The Association of Former Inmates of Auschwitz), carried by the enormous energy of Raphaël Esrail, President of the UDA. It gives an account of the genocidal measures employed by German Nazis all over Europe. The website project was supported by the Foundation for the Shoah Memorial. 

A website of crucial importance for teaching about the Holocaust

The website is an invaluable source of materials and acts as an important teaching tool to understand the Holocaust and the genocidal actions carried out by the Nazi regime and their allies all over Europe. The mapping of all kinds of camps and transport information for the deportation provides detailed information for this record. The scaled maps of each camp provide a wealth of information on this mass criminal organisation… Especially by including eyewitness accounts for each location. This also includes photographic and video records, scientific notes and other studies that include further information. All very detailed but accessible. 

As well we can use satellite images to move from specific to a broad spectrum, from personal accounts to comprehensive history.
 

Une cartographie de tous les types de camps

Uncovering the evidence

‘Remembering the deportations’ also allows us to raise the question of the destruction of evidence, as was the intention of the Nazis, governments and communities after 1945. Demolition, the concealment of camps with woodlands, establishment of housing, all provided visual concealment. Here is an opportunity for a ‘phantom archaeology’ of the story that is remains imprinted all over Europe. A Europe that is now rebuilt and unified, but which grew from the ruins of the greatest crime committed by man against man in the history of humanity.
 

Auschwitz