Homes as Witnesses of the Holocaust in Paris:
How Jewish tenants were deprived of their
rental rights (and never recovered them)
Annual Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar Lecture
April 14, 2026 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Rosen Family Screening Room at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center, Room 227
(Join us in person or on Zoom)
Lunch following the lecture by RSVP only
A public lecture by Prof. Sarah Gensburger (Professor of Political Science and History, CNRS and Sciences Po Paris)
2025-2026 Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence
Organized by the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research with cooperation from the USC Shoah Foundation
In 1940, Paris was home to some 200,000 Jews, 40,000 of whom would be deported or shot by the end of the war. The rest survived by moving to the south of France or moving into hiding places in the city. After the Liberation of Paris, at the end of August 1944, however, these survivors found their apartments emptied of their possessions and occupied by new tenants. Most were unable to reclaim their homes.
Indeed, the restored French Republic chose to sacrifice the rights of Jewish tenants in order to appease a Parisian population that, during the Occupation, had taken advantage of the absence of Jewish families to solve a long-standing housing crisis exacerbated by the war. The City of Paris, landlords, trustees, neighbors and prospective tenants took an interest in the persecution of Jews.
This forgotten chapter of the history of the Holocaust in France invites us to reconsider the historiography that has been developing in recent years and praises the supposed solidarity of Parisians with the Jews as opposed to the attitude of the French state and administration. Considering homes as witnesses highlights, on the contrary, how the policies of persecution and the attitude of the population reinforced each other explaining why the Holocaust could take place in Paris where no ghettos ever existed. Until today, this dispossession has been forgotten and never repaired.
This talk continues the work undertaken in her recently published book Appartements témoins. La spoliation des locataires juifs à Paris, 1940-1946, co-written with Isabelle Backouche and Eric le Bourhis (La Découverte, 2025). Winner of Albertine Translation Grant 2025, the book will be published in English by Rutgers University Press in 2027.
This lecture will be followed by a lunch hosted by USC Shoah Foundation. Advanced RSVP for the lunch (via the registration form) is required. Space is limited.
Register Here
Sarah Gensburger is Professor of Political Science and History at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Sciences Po Paris. Between 2021 and 2024, she served as the president of the international Memory Studies Association. She has authored 15 books, including Beyond Memory: Can We Really Learn from the Past, with Sandrine Lefranc, Palgrave, 2020; Memory on my Doorstep: Chronicles of the Bataclan Neighborhood (Paris, 2015-2016), Leuven University Press, 2019; Witnessing the Robbing of the Jews: A Photographic Album, Paris 1940-1944, Indiana University Press, 2015 and National Policy, Global Memory: The Commemoration of the Righteous among the Nations from Jerusalem to Paris, Berghahn Books, 2016. Learn more about her here.
Lecture image: “118 avenue Parmentier, Paris 11th discrict, The Malowanczyk will never be able to recover their tenants’ rights after the war”, Memorial de la Shoah