At the start of this sunny June morning, on the shaded banks of the Marne, facing the tavern of Kingfisher Island, there floats like a holiday air which contrasts with the seriousness of the group of schoolchildren waiting in front of the museum of the National Resistance (MRN) of Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne).
Like tens of thousands of “schoolchildren” who preceded them since its creation in 1985, they will discover in a few moments the permanent exhibition which traces the history of the Resistance, from its beginnings to the Liberation, and the lives of these women and men who fought against the occupier, Nazism and Vichy.
Since its installation in 2020 in the Aimé-Césaire space made available by the departmental council, attendance at the museum has continued to grow. “When it was located at the top of Champigny, it welcomed an average of 2,300 visitors per year. In 2023, nearly 10,000 people visited it and 2024 promises to be another record year with a 35% increase in the number of entries”explains Georges Duffau-Epstein, president of the Association of Friends of the Museum, which manages the institution.
100,000 euros to be found to complete the current financial year
Now located about ten minutes on foot from the Champigny RER A station, itself accessible in around twenty minutes from the center of Paris, the museum also offers, each year, a temporary exhibition which reinforces its appeal. After the success of “You will no longer go dancing!” » on clandestine balls between 1939 and 1945, presented from fall 2022 to spring 2023, “Robert Doisneau, the spirit of resistance” triggered a craze which led the museum to extend it until October 13.
This success is now threatened. The museum is facing a serious financial crisis. In recent years, several local authorities have eliminated or reduced their subsidies even though they represent 60% of its resources. “Our cash flow has allowed us until now to compensate for this disengagement but, this year, our reserves are exhausted. We absolutely need to find 100,000 euros to complete the exercise. Otherwise, we will have to close the door and lay off employees”specifies Georges Duffau-Epstein.
Faced with the emergency, the museum launched a national subscription, via the Helloasso association platform, accessible from its website. The museum also received support from several personalities including the actress Ariane Ascaride, the slam poet Grand Corps malade, the mathematician Cédric Villani, the artist and visual artist Pascal Convert, creator of the monument in tribute to those shot at Mont-Valérien, the business leader Alain Minc, son of the resistance fighter Joseph Minc, the honorary president of the Human Rights League, Patrick Baudouin, Annette Doisneau and Francine Deroudille, daughters of Robert Doisneau, Stéphane Kovalsky, grandson of Willy Ronis, Élisabeth Helfer-Aubrac, daughter of Lucie and Raymond Aubrac, etc.
The mobilization in favor of this institution, labeled “Museum of France”, can also be explained by the scientific interest of its reserves built up over the years by thousands of donations from resistance fighters or their descendants. A place of documentation, conservation and research, the Jean-Louis-Crémieux-Brilhac space of the museum houses 500 linear meters of archives, more than 5,000 objects, photographic and cinematographic funds, collections of legal and clandestine prints , heritage and research libraries and numerous works of art. Proof of the interest of all this heritage, the State has added the services of a heritage curator to the museum team.
If the aim of the subscription is to avoid the closure of the museum in the short term, Georges Duffau-Epstein and the 300 members of the Friends of the Museum are also mobilizing to guarantee its long-term existence by increasing efforts with local communities and possible patrons.
Son of Joseph Epstein, leader of the FTP-MOI shot by the Germans in 1944, to whom a tribute was paid on the occasion of the pantheonization of Missak Manouchian, Georges Duffau-Epstein also wrote to the President of the Republic to ask him to ‘to intervene. “Who could understand that the year in which we commemorate the sacrifice of the heroes of the Red Poster and in which we celebrate the 80e anniversary of the Liberation and while the extreme right is at the gates of power, the State allows this museum which maintains the memory of those who never gave up? »
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