Established on Avenue Berthelot for more than 30 years, the Historic Center of Resistance and Deportation welcomes 64,000 visitors each year. Today one of the member structures of a knowledge center including the Institute of Political Studies and the NGO Act together for human rights, the building has not always been well attended.
The military health service school in Lyon became the headquarters of the Gestapo
At the start of the Second World War, the military health service school, located on Avenue Berthelot, saw all of its students mobilized. And the invasion of the southern zone in 1942 marks the end of all activity of the institution. The Gestapo and the German military post moved there in March 1943. The fortress-like building was a boon for the Nazi militia known for its violent interrogations. The building imagined years earlier by Abraham Hirsch, chief architect of the city of Lyon at the end of the 19th centurye century, allows almost perfect impermeability with the outside.
The interrogations take place in the former student rooms of the military school. It is even there that Jean Moulin is interrogated and tortured by Klaus Barbie himself, before being transferred to the Parisian headquarters of the militia.
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On May 26, 44, the Americans bombed a railway link located just behind the building. The target was missed and caused major damage on Avenue Berthelot. 700 people are killed. The front facade of the building was destroyed, making the interior visible from the street. The militia decamped and then found refuge at 33 place Bellecour.
Lyon, the resistance and the Barbie trial
After the war, a small group of Free French resistance fighters and former deportees felt the need to keep track of what happened in Lyon in 1965. Supported by Louis Pradel, mayor of Lyon and former Le Coq enchainé , the collective installs a museum of resistance in Lyon in a room lent by the Guimet museum, at the corner of rue Boileau and boulevard des Belges, Lyon 6e. On May 8, 1967, the museum was inaugurated and presented material elements to the public with the aim of perpetuating the memory of the dark years of the Occupation.
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In the 1980s, there was a desire to expand the collections, and an event shook things up. On May 11, 1987, during the trial of Klaus Barbie at the Rhône Assize Court, things changed. Extradited from Bolivia after 40 years on the run, the man nicknamed “the butcher of Lyon” appears for crimes against humanity in Lyon. This trial benefits from a lot of media coverage, and for good reason, it is the first time that a man has been tried for this charge in France. We then witness a collective awareness of the level of Lyon’s involvement in the repression and persecution of Jews during the war.
Relocation of the historic center of resistance and deportation in the 7e arrondissement
The move of the collections to what is today the CHRD then seemed obvious. This is how the resistance museum was moved to the former gestapo HQ, avenue Berthelot. A project was notably supported by Michel Noir, mayor of the city, elected in 1989. The CHRD was inaugurated in October 1992.
The permanent tour juggles old collections and new technologies with an immersive itinerary in a ruined city. To mark the museum’s 20th anniversary, the permanent exhibition is being redesigned for more contexts and embodiment. An exhibition “Lyon, a city in the war” allows us to remember what happened within its walls.
Bertille Bohard
