Izieu
commune in Ain, France
Izieu (French pronunciation: [izjø]) is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. It lies on the river Rhône, between the cities of Lyon and Chambéry.
The Commune is infamous for the 1944 abduction by the Nazis of the children and staff from the Izieu orphanage.
Site of World War II Jewish orphanage
Izieu was the site of a Jewish orphanage during the Second World War. However, most of the children were only separated from their parents or sent purposely in the Savoy mountains which was then under Italian rule. Italy was less oppressive in that time. On 6 April 1944, three vehicles pulled up in front of the orphanage. The Gestapo, under the direction of the 'Butcher of Lyon' Klaus Barbie, entered the orphanage and forcibly removed the forty-four children and their seven supervisors, throwing the crying and terrified children on to the trucks.
As a witness later recalled: 'I was on my way down the stairs when my sister shouted to me: It's the Germans, run away! I jumped out the window.
The public source identifies “Izieu” as commune in Ain, France. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Izieu, commune and France.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q664856. VIAF identifies the subject as 141952181. Authority coordinates are 45.655, 5.644. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Izieu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.