One of the first high-rise housing units in Paris was nicknamed La Cite de la Muette, "The Silent City," for its intended peacefulness. It was confiscated by the Nazi and turned into a detention and transit camp for Jews from France and elsewhere - and with the connivance of the Vichy Government, as France has only recently admitted. Before Liberation, 67, 400 were deported to the east - 6,000 of which were children. They were sent to Sobibor, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and other terminal destinations. Only 1, 542 were alive on 17 August 1944, when Allied forces entered the camp. Alois Brunner was the former commandant.
The memorial was created in 1977. Jaques Chirac admitted French complicity in 1995. Since then, the memorial has been vandalized several times. And the French railway company whose name appears on the car, SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins der fer Francais) has recently accepted responsibility for the transportation - and their profits.