Education and Research
Who we are and what we do
Educational Visits
A visit to the Memorial by a class of 15-year-old students from Ecole Du Nord school. The visit, under the theme of “Friendship and Remembrance”, was organised after the class read the book The Last Brother by Mauritian French author Natacha Appanah, with their French teacher, Monsieur Jargelard.
The students of Classe Terminale Section Européenne of Lycee Labourdonnais visited the Memorial with their history teacher, Elisabeth Hennebert, to learn about the Jewish refugees detained in Mauritius during the Second World War. The school commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2016/2017, inviting their students to deliver a talk about their findings on the Jewish refugees based on their visit to the Memorial.
The 14/15-years-old students from Lycee Labourdonnais visited the Memorial as part of their history programme, where they learned about antisemitism, persecution and the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War.
Mauritians Remember the Jewish Detainees
An excerpt from an interview with Marie-Claude Souchon conducted in January 2020. Marie-Claude, an 86 years old French Mauritian, was nine years-old at the end of 1942, when the German-Jewish refugee, Anna Frank Klein was hired by her father to paint portraits of her and her sister. Her father told her that the Jews could now earn a living and that it was their family duty to help them. Marie-Claude’s portrait is still hanging in her living room.
An excerpt from an interview with Francoise Briottet, a French Mauritian whose family has a painting by Czech-Jewish refugee, Peretz Beda Mayer. The painting was purchased by Francoise’s father at an exhibition of refugees’ art held in Curepipe during their detention.
An excerpt from an interview with Harry Hargreaves (junior), son of Harry Hargreaves (senior), one of the camp’s British commanders. Harry’s father was on the Patria when it sank but he survived. He was later assigned to escort the refugees to Mauritius and worked in the camp until it was liberated in August 1945. In 1942 he was married to a local Mauritian and Harry (Junior) was born in 1943. As a gift to mark his birth, the detainees gave Harry a spoon made of local rupee coins that they melted in the camp workshop.
