Between 1941 and 1944, the Germans in the Mont Valérien clearing, executed 1 015 hostages and resistance fighters. The Manouchian Group, Honoré d’Estienne d’Orves, and many more fell here 70 years ago. Many of them wrote farewell letters. These poignant testimonies cannot be separated from their historical context.
From the periphery to the center, the levels of information invest the space in different ways. A great photographic historical fresco based on archival documents, depicts the world of occupied Paris. Before it, a long table displays the exhibition’s historical words. In the middle of the room, two curved walls form an open mandorla.
Inside, 20 farewell letters are presented along with their author’s biography. Set apart from the rest of the exhibition, these letters are both intimate testimonies and primary history documents. The visitor can go freely back and forth between History and the more personal journeys of its protagonists. Two poems of Louis Aragon flank the walls.
