Monument de la rafle du Vel d'Hiv memorial

Although there are many places from whence I drew inspiration for this grant, one of my strongest was from a survivor I met in Houston when I was working on my 2011 grant. She said that not enough people know about France's role in the Holocaust. I use her testimony in my class, and it from her testimony that my two students took inspiration for their National History Day exhibit. 

The students used the Upstander to show that it is our responsibility to honor an individual's right, and they used Vichy, the Vel d'Hiv roundup, and the train company, SNCF, to show that while evil does exist in the world, the Upstander is always a positive force in any situation. 

Seeing this memorial on my last day in Paris was so powerful. 

As I was walking to find the memorial, I ran into a memorial for the Bir-Hakeim. I love, love, love serendipitous experiences.

The Velodrome does not exist anymore, and this is what the street surrounding it looks like.

And this is the plaque where the Velodrome actually stood.

The memorial is at the end of the street (right by the river, near an entrance to the RER that is used for the Eiffel Tower). The picture at the top of this post points to the memorial in the pictures below.

I could not have asked for a better way to end my time in Paris. Seeing the memorial for the event that my students so much, seeing the memorial for the event that was not acknowledged for such a long period of time, seeing the memorial for the event that is such a reminder of the dark period in our humanity gives me courage to continue to find the good in the world--and to continue to teach my students about the power of the Upstander.