Monument to victims of the Winter Velodrome (Vel d'Iv) recalls the tragic page in the history of France in July 1942 on the orders of the German occupation authorities, French police arrested 13,000 foreign Jews living in Paris. Most of them before sending to the death camp contained at the Winter Velodrome.

Vel d'Iv, the first indoor cycling track in France before the war has been a popular destination. There, on the street Nelaton, carried out not only cycling, but also competitions in hockey, wrestling, boxing. Hemingway in "A Moveable Feast" in their romantic manner described Winter Velodrome "in the haze of the passing day." In the haze of early morning 16 July 1942 Vel d'Iv took thousands of Jews - men, women, children of all ages. They stayed there for a week - in the heat (at the velodrome has a glass roof and all the windows closed), without food, with a single tap and five toilets at all. Those who tried to escape were shot on the spot, a few people have committed suicide. A week later, all transported to Auschwitz.

Three children were rescued mother Mary Skobtsova. Poet, a nun, a participant of the Resistance was living very close - in the street Lurmel. Mother Mary has made to let her into the stadium, there is found the familiar emigrant from Russia and help her children, two boys and a girl running, hiding them in the slop tanks.

After the war, abandoned Velodrome burned. Now, the Vel d'Iv apartment buildings and the Ministry of the Interior.

For years, France refused to admit his guilt in this tragedy. Only in 1995, President Jacques Chirac said the first time that the country has committed the unpardonable sin.

The ceremony in memory of the victims held at the monument every year. However, it is not easy to find, and hardly any of the Parisians will tell you where he is. To come to the monument, it is necessary to move from the bridge Bir Akeym along the boardwalk promenade Grenelle. Promenade - it is actually the roof of the tunnel, which after crossing the Seine go train RER. Up there, in front of the house №17, not visible from the sidewalk, and is a monument to the sculptor and architect Walter Spitzer Mario Azaguri.

Spitzer child was among those arrested at the Winter Stadium and survived Auschwitz. His monument - seven figures, sitting and lying on an inclined surface of the racetrack. Three women, two men, two children. Their faces turned to the Eiffel Tower - the symbol of the city, from which they hoped to obtain protection.