Memorial de la Deportation

At the end of Ile de la Cite, just across from the gardens of Notre Dame Cathedral, is a small sign, pointing.

This is a memorial built to commemorate the thousands of Jews, homosexuals, disabled people and resistance fighters rounded up and deported to the death camps by the Nazis.

You read the explanations on the plaque and then go down the narrow stairs, built purposely to give a sense of what it was like for the deported - narrow aisle-ways, restricted views.

Inside is silence, the names of the camps (so many of them!), two cells.

The Tomb of the Unknown Victim.  And thousands of lights, each one representing a person deported, never to return.

Simple, powerful, not to be missed.