Judicial Police revealed a lengthy malfunction in the archive services that had led to the documents being disposed of .
Nevertheless , the very day Joël Mettay ' s article appeared , the writer Claude Delmas decided to launch a petition entitled “ Mémoire ou amnésie collective ” [“ Collective memory or amnesia ?”], calling for the creation of an MCR . The document was quickly co-signed by national political and artistic figures . A collective was set up ; its principle declaration stated that the MCR should be “ multicommunity ”, as it constituted a “ civic ” project in the face of the return of “ fascism ”. The collective pulled out all the stops . It organised a screening in Perpignan of Swiss director Jacqueline Veuve ' s film Le Journal de Rivesaltes ( 1997 ), based on the diary kept by the nurse , Friedel Bohny-Rieter , who worked to save many Jewish children from the Rivesaltes camp . The article in the local press describes the reactions of the public : “ How could such horrors have happened there , on the land that our parents crossed to go to the vineyard ... How is it that these events have been hidden for so long ?” 3 .
Remembrance policies
The collective received high-profile political support ( Simone Veil ), but first it had to oppose local political projects . The town council of Rivesaltes wanted to create a large area for spreading the sludge from the area ’ s water treatment plant . The block where the administrative detention centre for illegal immigrants ( CRA ) is still located would be surrounded by this sludge , as well as blocks J and K , both of which had participated in the special camp used to round up Jews before being sent to Drancy for Auschwitz .
However , the citizens ’ movement found support in the president Christian Bourquin , a socialist , who became head of the Departmental Council in 1998 . The Departmental Council set up a “ Remembrance Commission ” bringing together
3 L ’ Indépendant , 3 rd December 1997 ; archives of Nicolas Lebourg . various associations and began the process of setting up the MCR .
This participatory nature is currently being highlighted by the MCR , which has set up a virtual reality experience , the scenario for which was created by classes of secondary school students from Rivesaltes , while the next edition of the collections of testimonies will be chosen by the Remembrance Commission .
In 2005 , the department launched a tender for projects for the building . 46 projects were submitted . Five teams were interviewed , with very different proposals . Rudy Ricciotti ’ s team was selected , proposing a large concrete block level to the ground at the entrance , but gradually sloping upwards to the sky without ever going higher than the roof of the barracks . The building has enormous corridors and is windowless , illuminated only by the patios , and thereby echoing the testimonies of the internees narrating their wandering through the camp with the sky as their only escape .
The surrounding barracks are not affected , as the MCR is buried in the heart of the former assembly square . The annotations left by a member of the jury on the copy of the file in our possession show the points of enthusiasm : “ finally !”, when an educational area is mentioned , “ yes ”, when it is stated that the site should contain artistic productions by members of the various “ communities ” that passed through the camp in order to show human resistance to violence . While the emphasis on “ communities ” was highly valued in the prefiguration of the site , it was subsequently set aside in favour of a universalist conception .
On the other hand , since the MCR opened in 2015 , the care taken in the artistic and cultural productions has proved to be a permanent feature . It is also worth noting that the idea of a windowless building is reminiscent of a note produced for the citizens ’ collective by August Bohny , the husband of Friedel Bohny-Rieter . In it , he suggested that the MCR should be a “ windowless building on the Perpignan side , a high wall without windows ”. The jury ’ s final report chose the project , highlighting how it “ has a quality of simplicity and adds overview
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