Lyon was the center of the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Lyon now has an excellent museum documenting the Resistance activities as well as the deportation of Jews to the Nazi concentration camps. The museum is called the “Centre d’historie de la resistance et de la deportation” and it is housed in a former military medical school building that was used by the Nazis during the war to torture Resistance fighters. We spent an entire afternoon in this fascinating yet haunting museum. All of the signage was in French, but the museum provided a cell phone app that gave a guided tour in English.
The Resistance fighters in Lyon fought bravely but many were captured and tortured or killed. And despite their efforts to hide and protect their Jewish neighbors, many thousands of Jews were deported from France to the concentration camps. The Resistance fighters were very well-organized, with a communications network of newsletters and radios. Many of the newsletters were printed and distributed in the traboules of Vieux Lyon to avoid detection by the Nazis.
The most brutal torture was conducted under the watch of the Lyon Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, aka the Butcher of Lyon. “Among other atrocities, Barbie personally tortured and executed many of his prisoners. In 1943, he captured Jean Moulin, the leader of the French Resistance, and had him slowly beaten to death. In 1944, Barbie rounded up 44 young Jewish children and their seven teachers hiding in a boarding house in Izieu and deported them to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Of the 51, only one teacher survived.” (from History.com)
After the war Barbie fled to Bolivia but he was eventually hunted down and returned to Lyon in 1987 where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity (the statute of limitations had expired for war crimes) and sentenced to life imprisonment. The museum has a chilling 45-minute documentary film on Barbie’s trial, much of which consists of Barbie’s victims describing the atrocities they suffered.
As we toured the museum we encountered several groups of teenagers who appeared to be on school trips to the museum. It was heartening to know that France is making the effort to ensure that the next generation understands the atrocities that were committed under the Nazis so they can do their best not to allow it to happen again.
