Hello Readers,
By now the group is starting to feel the effects of travel. Many of us are exhausted and have plenty of blisters to prove just how much walking we've done of the course of the past two weeks.
Despite the weariness, we trek on with our journey of learning. Today we visited the deportation memorial just behind Notre Dame and across the street. This seems like a prime location where many people would visit right? Not quite. The memorial is behind hedges that block out the entire park. There are only two entrances. The big entrance was locked and the smaller is a bit more down the road. There is something to be said about how hidden this memorial is. We first examined the plaque of the memorial, which was unique in itself. At the bottom of the plaque the triangles are displayed that named the "crime" that the prisoner was accused of. Notice how each star is on the same level as if to say that all suffered equally under the Nazi regime. Something that is truly unique about this sign is that it has a French, English, and German translation on it. Every museum we've visited so far has had primarily French on their signs. English is rare and usually only on the more popular artworks. It's very intentional as to why they included these three languages.
The next part of the memorial is the open field and garden beds. Note how the flowers are arranged in a triangle. This was also very intentional, but something that caught our group's eye was that the flowers were pink. The pink triangle is the symbol that the Nazi's used to identify homosexuals. It is most likely that the planners of the memorial didn't intend for this meaning, but we've been trained to read between the lines and look for queerness everywhere. Too often our history is erased. It's quite possible that the landscape architect knew the significance of the pink and purposely chose pink flowers to plant. Our queer Brothers and Sisters are everywhere and leave their marks in a hidden language.
Now, I'm very sorry to disappoint our readers, but we were unable to actually view the real memorial on the bank of the river. The memorial was closed with no explanation or signage showing why. Lowell & Dr. Pitts assured us that they had checked online multiple times to make sure the memorial would be open. We even checked the website when we were at the memorial to see if there was a random reason for it being closed. Nothing. The silence surrounding the reason as to why the memorial was closed was frustrating.
In lieu of the memorial, Dr. Pitts gave us a mini-lecture on the history of this particular site as well as an explanation of French collaboration during the occupation. Over 30,000 French Jews were lined up and deported to a holding camp called Drancy, before being deported at this location to Auschwitz. Before being lined up at this location, they were kept at the Velodrome d'hiver, an old motorcycle track. The track is in a glass dome that acted as a greenhouse where these Jews and other "criminals" were kept for days without food or water. Some when insane from heat exhaustion and jumped from the stands to commit suicide.
Drancy, the holding location before many Jews were sent to Auschwitz.
We also learned quite a bit about why the French collaborated with Nazi Germany. The collaboration was mostly due to the losses that the French had during WWI. They lost a whole generation of young men to WWI and didn't want the same thing to happen again. So the French believed that by having their government collaborate, they could still have French officials in power and minimize French losses. Thankfully, a young French general by the name of Charles De Gaulle escaped to England and acted as the official French government. This enabled the Americans and the British to have someone to confer with during the war. It was interesting to compare the acts of resistance in France to that of the Netherlands, who declared themselves neutral in the war.
Today, the French are beginning to understand and come to terms with just how much collaborating cost them. In the early 2000's plaques have been placed around the city at sites where Jews were deported. Plaques like these are the beginnings of the French atonement for collaboration. It's hard to think about what I would do in that situation or what I would want my government to do. I think it's important to not judge all the collaborators, especially since many might have felt that they were doing what they needed to do to survive or what they thought would bring the least about of harm to themselves and their community.
Everyday, I seem to be learning more and more about not only queer history, but about the history of the wars as well. Never did I think I could absorb this much information in such a short trip. It's really nice to be able to see and touch the sites where so much history has happened. It has truly been an honor to be a part of this trip and I can't help but be sad knowing that we only have another day before we depart home.
Your traveler and student,
Derek McDowell
Exploring gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history and culture!
The next part of the memorial is the open field and garden beds. Note how the flowers are arranged in a triangle. This was also very intentional, but something that caught our group's eye was that the flowers were pink. The pink triangle is the symbol that the Nazi's used to identify homosexuals. It is most likely that the planners of the memorial didn't intend for this meaning, but we've been trained to read between the lines and look for queerness everywhere. Too often our history is erased. It's quite possible that the landscape architect knew the significance of the pink and purposely chose pink flowers to plant. Our queer Brothers and Sisters are everywhere and leave their marks in a hidden language.
Now, I'm very sorry to disappoint our readers, but we were unable to actually view the real memorial on the bank of the river. The memorial was closed with no explanation or signage showing why. Lowell & Dr. Pitts assured us that they had checked online multiple times to make sure the memorial would be open. We even checked the website when we were at the memorial to see if there was a random reason for it being closed. Nothing. The silence surrounding the reason as to why the memorial was closed was frustrating.
In lieu of the memorial, Dr. Pitts gave us a mini-lecture on the history of this particular site as well as an explanation of French collaboration during the occupation. Over 30,000 French Jews were lined up and deported to a holding camp called Drancy, before being deported at this location to Auschwitz. Before being lined up at this location, they were kept at the Velodrome d'hiver, an old motorcycle track. The track is in a glass dome that acted as a greenhouse where these Jews and other "criminals" were kept for days without food or water. Some when insane from heat exhaustion and jumped from the stands to commit suicide.
Today, the French are beginning to understand and come to terms with just how much collaborating cost them. In the early 2000's plaques have been placed around the city at sites where Jews were deported. Plaques like these are the beginnings of the French atonement for collaboration. It's hard to think about what I would do in that situation or what I would want my government to do. I think it's important to not judge all the collaborators, especially since many might have felt that they were doing what they needed to do to survive or what they thought would bring the least about of harm to themselves and their community.
Everyday, I seem to be learning more and more about not only queer history, but about the history of the wars as well. Never did I think I could absorb this much information in such a short trip. It's really nice to be able to see and touch the sites where so much history has happened. It has truly been an honor to be a part of this trip and I can't help but be sad knowing that we only have another day before we depart home. Your traveler and student, Derek McDowell
