In October 1940, thousands of Jews from Southwest Germany were deported to Gurs. Some of the internees managed to escape this French camp, but more than a thousand died. The majority of the survivors would later be transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor, where they were murdered.

Our exhibition tells the story of these crimes and how they were later dealt with which from various points of view.  

Border areas and spaces of violence

This section of the exhibition addresses the history of the deportation. What did the Jews experience before and during the deportation? Who organised the deportation?

Places of Internment

This section will describe what Jewish women, men and children in Gurs and other camps in France were made to experience and suffer. What did the French authorities do?

Deathzones

This part of the exhibition approaches the unimaginable and shows how the plans to murder the Jews became murderous reality.

Spaces of Tension

This section describes how German and French societies dealt with the crimes after 1945. Who was convicted and who remembered?

The Dimensions of Today

The last section of the exhibition turns its attention to the here and now, describing commemoration initiatives as well as the recurring attacks on Jews in our societies.

The “Gurs 1940” exhibition is by no means the first on this topic. However, it attempts to consciously forge links between different national narratives and, in doing so, hopes to contribute to an integrated and integrating European account of the marginalisation, persecution and murder of Jews during National Socialism.