A Level trip to Paris

On Thursday 12 October a group of Upper Eighth French pupils travelled to Paris for the day to do more in-depth research on their A level topic of France during the Second World War.

During the visit, we toured the Musée de la Libération de Paris, the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation and the Mémorial de la Shoah, where we learnt about life during the Occupation, the risks taken by Résistants, including a group of female fighters known as the ‘31000’, and the persecution of various groups considered deviant by the occupying Nazis and the collaborationist Vichy regime. The Occupation lasted more than four years and is considered a unique and highly complex period of French history, but by undertaking further study in situ the students gleaned clearer and more meaningful insights into the period.