They stand up against the decision of the town hall to close the museum of resistance and deportation. The place of memory, located in a town of 30,000 inhabitants, in the heart of the Drôme, was inaugurated in 1973 by a committee made up of three associations of resistance fighters. It contains archives and objects from the Second World War and shares its space with the shoe museum. On one side, more than 4000m2 reserved for shoes. On the other, some 250m2 of space containing archives and objects from the Second World War. If the shoe museum “has been reopened with great fanfare”, this is not the case for the resistance collection, which has not welcomed the public since May 19, arousing strong reactions from its defenders.

According to Chantal Magnat, head of the Romans-sur-Isère museum from 1989 to 2020, it is a “brutal decision which surprised us a lot and which does not find any legitimate explanation in our eyes. Each year, we received between 25,000 and 30,000 onlookers. The majority of them took the opportunity to take a look at our resistance exposure. The feedback was very positive.”

Marie-Hélène Thoraval, the mayor of Romans-sur-Isère since 2014, justifies the closure of the place due to the drop in attendance in recent years. “We have at most a few hundred visitors a year to this museum.” She evokes a lack of coherence in the visitor's journey: "The majority of passers-by are much more surprised than delighted to find this unexpected parenthesis on resistance on their way to the shoe museum." The existence of another resistance museum in the heart of the town of Vassieux-en-Vercors, just 30 minutes by car from Romans-sur-Isère, ensures, according to the mayor, the duty of memory. The Martyr Village Museum would be much better able to provide an educational experience for students. “The museographic proposal of Romans-sur-Isère is obsolete. The teachers of the school complex, from Triboulet to Romans, prefer to take their students to Vassieux.”

There are agreements available to students from schools in the Drôme, provided they complete a file and be selected. These educational actions allow middle school students from Valence, Montélimar or even Romans-sur-Isère to attend. "What does not really affect the attendance of this place," said a person close to the Vassieux museum who does not wish to be quoted.

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Attachment to the memory of veterans

Her retirement being scheduled for July 2020, Chantal Magnat had taken the time to train the one who was to be her successor, before learning that no one would take over . “I had not felt any desire to close the museum. I learned the news at the same time as the sympathizers. The retiree, who still lives not far from the city, is saddened. “This place represents many years of veteran work.” His retirement reduces salary expenses for the city, which is seizing an economic opportunity. A project more related to the shoe should see the light of day soon. "We are working on a project to redevelop the site, which we want to make available to shoe professionals, such as the Clergerie house in particular, who will be able to benefit from a resource center on site," assures the mayor.

A demonstration of support on August 22

The documentation of the resistance party will be transferred to the municipal archives and the collection will be digitized and can be consulted on the internet. A museum defense committee, chaired by Jean Sauvageon, was formed in 2021. Jacques Varin, secretary general of the Paris office of the ANACR for fifteen years, is campaigning for the maintenance of this museum. “The experience of visiting a museum cannot be the same virtually. As Jean Sauvageon said, in this case, the Louvre can close and we will watch the Mona Lisa from our computers.

Methods of resistance are peaceful. The group launched an online petition in May, already signed by 20,840 people. “There is a demonstration in support of the museum scheduled for August 22,” explains the retiree. It will take place before the official ceremony in Romans-sur-Isère, in front of the war memorial, at 11 a.m. The defense committee invites young and old to join them to lay a wreath at 10:30 a.m.

The story of the creation of the museum in 1972

In 1972, 22 former resistance fighters and deportees decided to create a resistance museum. Among them, some participated in the mythical maquis of Vercors. They belong to 3 associations: the national association of veterans of the resistance (ANACR), the national federation of interned resistant and patriotic deportees (FNDIRP) and the association of pioneers and combatants of Vercors. The museum revolves around a watchword: the duty of memory. In 1974, the museum was born.

Jean Sauvageon, general secretary of the ANACR office in Romans-sur-Isère, talks about the museum as he knows it. "Visitors can find in this part of the museum various objects and clothing that date from the time," before evoking the emotional nature of the place. “We can also see, in one of the rooms, a work of La Mare au diable by George Sand, on which a young man of about twenty, locked up in the cramped library of a school establishment before being led to the firing squad, had written to his parents. On the way to the courtyard, escorted by the Germans, he had shouted to the headmaster of the school: above all, don't forget La Mare au diable! A key part of the collection, which will now be available on the Internet and in the city archives. Researchers will still be able to consult these archives, but no longer will students on school trips, if the museum closes definitively.