The municipality of Lens, the Shoah Memorial, the Consistoire and the Crif du Nord-Pas de Calais joined forces to commemorate this tragic event at the war memorial, where there is a plaque in memory of the deportees.
In attendance were the Mayor of Lens, Sylvain Robert, the Sub-Prefect of Lens, the representative of Xavier Bertrand, Mady Dorchie, Vice-President of the Regional Council, the Police Commissioner, the President of the Jewish Community of Lens, Sylvain Boukobza, and the President of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Association for the Memory of Deported Jewish Children, Paulette Touzard.
After speeches by Charles Sulman, Regional President of the Consistoire and the Crif, himself a hidden child, and Olivier Lalieu, representative of the Shoah Memorial, the personalities laid wreaths, each accompanied by two pupils from the Jean Zay secondary school.
The Deputy Mayor of Lens Danièle Lefebvre opened the well-documented eleven-panel exhibition on “The Holocaust in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais” at the media library, produced by historians Danielle Delmaire, Monique Heddebaut, Olivier Lalieu and Rudy Rigaut. The exhibition was also presented to pupils at Jean Zay secondary school.