On September 17, 2025, the Shoah Memorial in Paris presented the project for a museum in Nice, entirely dedicated to World War II and the history of the Shoah. Adopted in a city council meeting on November 7, 2023, and formalized in Paris in March 2024 by the City of Nice and Éric de Rothschild, president of the Shoah Memorial, the Nice museum will be an extension of this Shoah Memorial.
“This project is a source of pride for the city of Nice after its wall of the deported, its wall of the righteous, and Joann Sfar’s work on the Castle Hill. This transmission of memory will allow teachers and students to become witnesses themselves,” says the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi. Serving as a place for transmission, education, and reflection, the future Nice museum aims to preserve the memory of Jews persecuted in the Southeast of France during World War II.
It is part of a commitment to perpetuate the knowledge of this crucial period in contemporary history and fight against forgetting and all forms of hatred. At the beginning of the ceremony, a film produced with the mayor’s office services was screened on two giant screens to present the project being implemented in Nice.
Nice, a unique city
The Nice museum of the Shoah Memorial will aim to address several themes, including the local context of the war in Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes. “I am particularly happy to be able to establish the Memorial in Nice. The history of this city is unique, complete, tragic, and even exemplary,” expresses Éric de Rothschild, president of the Shoah Memorial.
The idea of this project is to illustrate life under Occupation and acts of resistance, the persecution of Jews, the deportations, and the Shoah journal through the stories of survivors. Serge Klarsfeld, president of the Association of Sons and Daughters of Deported Jews of France, present at the presentation of the Shoah Memorial project at the Masséna Museum, did not hesitate to lend his support to the city of Nice. “I love Nice and its mayor, Christian Estrosi, who has made this city one of the most beautiful and dynamic in France.”
Whether by coincidence or destiny, Serge Klarsfeld was celebrating his 90th birthday, as he was born on September 17, 1935. Amid applause, Christian Estrosi presented him with a unique painting representing the city of Nice.
An ambitious project
The museum will offer, over more than 600 m², an innovative, immersive, and accessible museographic journey. It will draw on original collections, unpublished testimonies, audiovisual archives, and interactive and educational installations. The museum will also provide a variety of activities to bring the memory to life and raise visitor awareness. Guided tours, commemorative days, cultural events, and study trips to Auschwitz-Birkenau are planned for everyone.
Christian Estrosi, accompanied by Éric de Rothschild and Serge Klarsfeld on the platform, laid the first stone of the future Shoah Memorial museum in Nice. “Having an annex of the Shoah Memorial was very important. Today, this decision makes perfect sense. The objective is for everyone to draw elements of memory that illuminate minds in a country like ours,” concludes the mayor regarding the value and influence of this project.
