French Memorial To Young Victims Of The Holocaust Vandalized
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A French memorial to young victims of the Holocaust was vandalized.
The memorial, a plaque bearing the names of 44 children and 7 adults who were deported in 1944 from the Children’s Home of Izieu in eastern France, was knocked off its base in a public garden in the city of Lyon and smashed. Most of the children were killed in Auschwitz, only one of their teachers, who were deported with them following a raid on the home by the Lyon Gestapo, survived the Holocaust.
In a statement issued Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the “shameful and cowardly act that won’t remain unpunished.”
“We are horrified but we won’t give up. We’ll rebuild it,” Jean Levy, the head of a charity committed to preserving the memory of the deported children, told the French news agency AFP.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
