THE EXHIBITION

After, After the catastrophe. After persecution, and the attempt to destroy a people, of which the most frequently remembered images are the terrible scenes of the camps’ liberation, the survivors wanted to be reunited with their loved ones, return home or find another refuge, go back to work and imagine a future again. The exhibition features nearly 250 photographs from the Mémorial de la Shoah archives, documents, archival films, audiovisual montages and many items (prayer books, suits, suitcases, models and memorabilia). It shows the diversity of situations in the general chaos and migrations of displaced populations at the end of the Second World War.Refugees, camp survivors, hidden children and members of the Resistance all aspired to start a new life. Who could help them recover? Where could they turn to obtain justice? How could they preserve the traces of the extermination of European Jews and compile the evidence of genocide? During the post-Holocaust period between late July 1944, when the Soviets liberated the first camp, and autumn 1947, European Jews sought to take control of their destiny back into their own hands. In this exhibition, you will learn about the individual destinies of five Jewish survivors who lived through very different situations.