Izieu

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Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

title: "Izieu" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["communes-of-ain", "holocaust-locations", "the-holocaust-in-france", "ain-communes-articles-needing-translation-from-french-wikipedia", "world-war-ii-sites-in-france"] description: "Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izieu" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox French commune"]

Field	Value
name	Izieu
commune status	Commune
image	Izieu Village.JPG
arrondissement	Belley
canton	Belley
INSEE	01193
postal code	01300
mayor	Denis Martin-Barbaz
term	2020–2026
coordinates
elevation m	350
elevation min m	211
elevation max m	758
area km2	7.67
population
population date
population footnotes
::

Izieu () is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. It lies on the river Rhône, between the cities of Lyon and Chambéry.

The Commune is famous for the 1944 abduction by the Nazis of the children and staff from the Izieu orphanage.

Site of World War II Jewish orphanage

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Place_des_Enfants_Juifs_(Izieu)_à_Belley.JPG" caption="Place des Enfants Juifs"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Plaque_Mémoire_Enfants_Izieu_Place_44_Enfants_Izieu_-Paris_XIII(FR75)_-2021-07-21-_1.jpg" caption="Tribute to the Jewish orphans of Izieu who perished."] ::

Izieu was the site of a Jewish orphanage during the Second World War. However, most of the children were only separated from their parents or sent purposely in the Savoy mountains which was then under Italian rule. Italy was less oppressive in that time. On 6 April 1944, three vehicles pulled up in front of the orphanage. The Gestapo, under the direction of the 'Butcher of Lyon' Klaus Barbie, entered the orphanage and forcibly removed the forty-four children and their seven supervisors, throwing the crying and terrified children on to the trucks.

As a witness later recalled: 'I was on my way down the stairs when my sister shouted to me: It's the Germans, run away! I jumped out the window. I hid myself in a bush in the garden. I heard the cries of the children that were being kidnapped and I heard the shouts of the Nazis who were carrying them away.'

Following the raid on their home in Izieu, the children were shipped directly to the "collection center" in Drancy, then put on the first available train towards the concentration camps in the East.

Forty-two children and five adults were gassed in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Two of the oldest children and Miron Zlatin, the superintendent, ended up in Tallinn, Estonia, and were killed by a firing squad.

The orphanage director Sabine Zlatin survived the Gestapo raid, being away collecting funds for the institution. Some 40 years later she testified against Barbie at his trial. Towards the end of her life, she convinced the president François Mitterrand to turn the orphanage premises into a memorial.

Population

|source = INSEE |percentages = pagr |align = none |1968 |103 |1975 |141 |1982 |136 |1990 |161 |1999 |178 |2009 |202 |2014 |231 |2020 |220

References

(2 December 2020). "Répertoire national des élus: les maires".
Robbins, Christopher. ''Test of Courage: The Michel Thomas Story'' (2000). New York Free Press/Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN. 978-0-7432-0263-3/Republished as ''Courage Beyond Words'' (2007). New York McGraw-Hill. {{ISBN. 0-07-149911-3
link. (10 December 2023 , INSEE)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::