Geographies of Persecution in Occupied Paris: Place and Space in Survivors’ Testimonies

In France, Holocaust perpetrators did not segregate Jews in ghettos before deportation, and thus the first stages of antisemitic persecution affected Jews in everyday urban space. Indeed, in the West, the early stages of the Holocaust took place in the victims’ most familiar places, both in public and private spaces, where they lived and worked every day, in their apartments, their streets, and in daily environments. In this talk, Maël Le Noc (PhD candidate, Texas State University, Geography) will draw from testimonies and archival material related to anti-Jewish persecution in two Parisian neighborhoods, the Arts-et-Métiers and the Enfants-Rouges quarters, to discuss the ways in which antisemitic persecution affected urban life and changed familiar urban spaces into spaces of exclusion and genocide. In particular, he will discuss how persecution affected the spatial practices, the spatial experiences, and the social relations of Parisian Jews.

Cosponsored by the USC Francophone Research & Resource Center.