Izieu

Izieu
Location of Izieu
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Ain
Arrondissement	Belley
Canton	Belley
Intercommunality	Rhône et Gland dite Terre d’eaux
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Jean-Philippe Gardat
Area 1	7.67 km2 (2.96 sq mi)
Population  (2008)	196
• Density	26/km2 (66/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 Rhône River between the cities of Lyon and Chambéry.

History

Izieu was the site of a Jewish orphanage during the Second World War. Most of the children were however 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 of Izieu

Year	1793	1800	1806	1821	1831	1836	1841	1846	1851	1856
Population	305	305	334	304	325	309	338	331	335	319

Year	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896	1901	1906
Population	326	316	326	327	340	334	332	307	269	250

Year	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954	1962	1968	1975
Population	262	217	207	185	174	147	145	113	103	141

Year	1982	1990	1999	2008
Population	136	161	178	196

See also

• Communes of the Ain department

References

• INSEE

External links

• Holocaust Memorial Maison d'Izieu
• The Children Of Izieu