Cercil- Musée Mémorial des Enfants du Vél d'Hiv

The Cercil is an association since 1991 by the initiative of the municipalities of Orléans, Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande. Cercil has been rejoined by the association of Serge Klarsfeld, the Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees of France (les Fils et Filles de déportés juifs de France), Henri Bulawko, of the Union of the Auschwitz Deportees (Union des Déportés d’Auschwitz), the Crif, the Jewish Community of Orleans, the CDJC, the Friends of Jean, le Crif, la communauté Juive d’Orléans, le CDJC, the Friends of Jean Zay (les Amis de Jean Zay), the city Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah after 2005.  

Cercil assembles and collects historical resources (correspondences, photographies, objects, works and archives) regarding the camps of Pithiviers, Baune-la-Rolande and Jargeau. Many materials are brought to the center by the families of persons interned in the camps. There is also a possibility to consult microfilms of the National Archives and the Departmental Archives of the Loiret. There is also a centre of documentation and a library that hold more than 5000 works concerning the Holocaust on one hand, and also more overall works regarding Judaism, the history of Gypsies, different genocides and the Second World War. There is also an important fond dedicated to youth literature.