Jews have lived in France from the Roman period to the present day. The Jews were expelled from France several times starting from the 13th and 14th centuries. Renowned centres of Jewish learning existed in Champagne and Provence. Jews were first granted emancipation and full citizenship by Napoleon at the time of the French revolution.
Many French Jews were deported to German concentration camps during the Holocaust, where they perished. Today half a million Jews live in France, making it the largest Jewish community in Europe.
Vélodrome d'Hiver – Holocause Memorial
On the left bank of the Seine, this vélodrome, site of various sporting events, was used as a detention camp for Jews during World War II. Thousands of Jews were detained here without provisions for days before being deported.
École Militaire
This was the site of the Dreyfuss trial in December 1984. Alfred Dreyfuss, a Jewish artillery officer, was wrongly convicted of treason, stripped of his rank and imprisoned on Devils Island.
A young Theodore Herzl, a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, witnessed the trial and the ensuing anti-Semitic jeers. This inspired Herzl to consider the situation of the Jews in Europe, to write his book Der Judenstaat and to found the Zionist movement.
Troyes – The birthplace of Rashi
Rashi was the most important Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages. The town of Troyes, in the Champagne region of France, was an important centre for Jewish scholarship. Rashi's commentaries to the Torah and the Talmud have become the standard commentaries throughout the Jewish world. The Tosephot – originally Rashi's own grandchildren and students but which spread throughout northern France and Germany – created a new and exciting way of analysing the Talmudic text.
Mémorial de la Déportation
The Mémorial de la Déportation is a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France to the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. It is located in Paris on the site of a former morgue, underground, behind Notre Dame on Île de la Cité. It was designed by French modernist architect, writer, teacher and town planner Georges-Henri Pingusson and opened in 1962.
