Children of the 209 Rue Saint-Maur, Paris 10ème

209 rue Saint-Maur tells the story of a typical building of Parisian “Yiddishland” before, during, and after WWII. From its facade, there is nothing to indicate that, more than 70 years ago, it was for some of its inhabitants a trap or a refuge.

‘In choosing the scale of a building and placing individuals in a network of interactions, solidarities, decisive neighbourhoods, in filming the inhabitants of yesterday, those of today, and in investigating the archives, I wanted to reconstruct and tell the story of this anonymous building and above all give a contemporary, concrete, “tested” representation of what these destroyed lives were like.’ – Ruth Zylberman