Izieu

Izieu
Commune
Location of Izieu
Izieu Izieu
Coordinates: 45°39′19″N 5°38′39″E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Ain
Arrondissement	Belley
Canton	Belley
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Denis Martin-Barbaz
Area 1	7.67 km2 (2.96 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	222
• Density	29/km2 (75/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	01193 /01300
Elevation	211–758 m (692–2,487 ft) (avg. 350 m or 1,150 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Izieu is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.

It lies on the river Rhône, between the cities of Lyon and Chambéry.

Site of World War II Jewish orphanage

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

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1793 305 —     1800 305 +0.0% 1806 334 +9.5% 1821 304 −9.0% 1831 325 +6.9% 1836 309 −4.9% 1841 338 +9.4% 1846 331 −2.1% 1851 335 +1.2% 1856 319 −4.8% 1861 326 +2.2% 1866 316 −3.1% 1872 326 +3.2% 1876 327 +0.3% 1881 340 +4.0% 1886 334 −1.8% 1891 332 −0.6%

Year Pop. ±% 1896 307 −7.5% 1901 269 −12.4% 1906 250 −7.1% 1911 262 +4.8% 1921 217 −17.2% 1926 207 −4.6% 1931 185 −10.6% 1936 174 −5.9% 1946 147 −15.5% 1954 145 −1.4% 1962 113 −22.1% 1968 103 −8.8% 1975 141 +36.9% 1982 136 −3.5% 1990 161 +18.4% 1999 178 +10.6% 2008 196 +10.1%

See also

• Communes of the Ain department

External links

• Official Website of Holocaust Memorial Maison d'Izieu
• The Children Of Izieu
• the Jewish orphanage in Izieu during the Holocaust - an online exhibition at Yad Vashem website