The Wall of Names
Marble panels of the deported, ordered by year.
BrnGrby — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gérald Garitan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0
**Not young children** — the content concerns a genocide and includes harsh images, documents and testimony, and the site itself does not recommend it. For **teenagers and older school-age children**, the visit may be among the most important things they see in Paris, on two conditions: **preparation beforehand** — that they know what they will see and why — and **an adult with them and time to talk afterwards**. The memorial receives school groups regularly and has material designed for them. Don't take a teenager in without explaining first.
**Don't wedge it between two activities.** Allow at least **an hour and a half**, and leave open time afterwards — many visitors need to walk in silence when they come out, and a noisy lunch or another museum does not follow well. The memorial is in **Le Marais**, so the natural thing afterwards is a quiet walk through the Jewish quarter's lanes and the rue des Rosiers. And check the **closing day (usually Saturday)** before planning, as that catches more visitors out than anything else.
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In the heart of **Le Marais** — Paris's historic Jewish quarter — stands Europe's principal centre for documenting and remembering the Holocaust, and entry is **free**. The site begins with the **Wall of Names**: marble panels in the courtyard inscribed with the names of some **seventy-six thousand** Jews deported from France to the extermination camps between 1942 and 1944, ordered by year of deportation. More than eleven thousand of them were **children**. Inside is the **Crypt of the Unknown Jewish Martyr**, with a black Star of David and ashes from the camps, then a permanent museum telling the story through documents, photographs and filmed testimony, with particular attention to the **role of the French Vichy state** in the deportations — a direct reckoning with French responsibility, without softening. It holds an **archive and research centre** used for documentation and tracing individual fates, and a space for temporary exhibitions. ⚠ This is an **emotionally very heavy** site. It is not a tourist attraction and not an activity to fill an hour; it needs preparation beforehand and time afterwards.
Marble panels of the deported, ordered by year.
A black star and ashes from the camps.
A direct reckoning with the French state's role in the deportations.
17 Rue Geoffroy l'Asnier, 75004 Paris
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