Cité de la Muette in Drancy: A report on a research visit ......Cité de la Muette in Drancy: A report on a research visit to Paris Stephanie Hesz-Wood PhD Research Student in History

Cité de la Muette in Drancy: A report on a research visit to Paris

Stephanie Hesz-Wood

PhD Research Student in History

In the Spring and Summer of 2014—with the generous support of the Royal Holloway

Travel Award—I was able to carry out vital preliminary research in Paris, Drancy (in the

suburbs of Paris), and Compiègne. My research presents a social, cultural and political

history of the Cité de La Muette in Drancy. Infamous for its role in the Final Solution as

an interment camp and ‘gateway’ to Auschwitz for the French Jewry, the appropriated

(unfinished) building complex in fact had already assumed architectural notoriety—a

prefabricated integrated complex; a progressive departure for social housing—before the

demands of the Second World War exploited its original vision and capability.

My PhD thesis aims to explore the dynamic between architectural theory,

historical events, Enlightenment ideas, and post-modern thought. Comparative analysis

with other European cites (and sites of memory) will be drawn upon to add weight and

clarify to the core argument. The cities of Warsaw and Berlin will provide such a focus.

The backbone to the study, as noted, will be provided by sites in Paris. This visit was

therefore essential to my progress within the first year of doctoral study, providing the

chance to both gain access to museums and archives (necessary to my research as my

PhD progresses), and affording me the opportunity to conduct site-specific

investigations in locations around Paris, and the main site of enquiry: the Cité de la

Muette on the outskirts of Paris in Drancy.

As I will be using the Cité de La Muette as an heuristic device (exploring the

relationship between built environment, site, and history), my final thesis requires close

investigations of architectural structures, including memorials and ruins, in situ. While in

Drancy (from the centre of Paris, a thirty minute Métro ride to the end of the line,

followed by a ten minute car ride) I visited the recently open museum, Mémorial de la

Shoah, Drancy, met with their archivist, and visited their temporary exhibition, The

Graffiti of Drancy. The memorial museum, flanked in floor to ceiling windows, is situated

directly opposite the ‘horse-shoe’ central section of the original complex of buildings

constructed in the 1930s. The first hand experience of the Cité de la Muette—containing

a number of memorials erected at different periods of its post-war history—was an

invaluable experience, providing important insights for the organising framework for my

thesis. While in Paris, I was also able to locate key archives for future visits, including

the Departmental Archives at in Seine Saint-Denis and the Cité de l’Architecture et

Patrimoine in Paris.

In central Paris, I visited the main Holocaust archive at the Mémorial de la

Shoah, where specialist archivists were able to assist me with my research. I also visited

other sites of memory and memorials within Paris, including the memorial to the Vel’ d’

Hiv (the memorial to the round-ups of Jewish people on June 16th and 17th 1942);

Christian Boltanski’s memorial installation at the Musée de’art et d’Historie de Judaïsme;

the Mémorial de la Déportation, and memorial plaques on buildings in the Marias

district. I also visited the Memorial de l’Internment et de la Déportation in Compiègne—

a distance outside Paris. Research conducted on this study trip proved invaluable to the

progress of my PhD. I am very grateful for this award as it has allowed me to reach (and

pragmatically adapt) my core research questions in a timely and productive manner.