First official visit of the new Interministerial Representative for the fight against racism, antisemitism and the anti-LGBT hatred (DILCRAH) at the Camp des Milles

©Fondation du Camp des Milles

On February 7, 2025, Mathias Ott, visited the camp of Milles memorial site. Alongside Elise Fajgélès, DILCRAH’s general secretary, he lengthily visited the historical and memorial parts of the memorial, discovering the persecutions’s cycle illustrated by the camp’s history, the rescues from the Righteous among the nations, and the drawings and paintings left by artist internees “in that place of suffering, hardship, but in which art, hope, were also able to be expressed”.

Then, lead by Alain Chouraqui, the Camp des Milles foundation’s president, he stopped at the reflexive and civic space that/which presents the pluridisciplinary scientific knowledge allowing the visitors to better understand the cycles and the recurring human mechanisms (prejudices, passiveness, blind submission to authority, herd instinct, major societal milestones…) which led and can still lead to the worst, as well as the processes that enable us to fight against it.

“It’s a place that allows us to learn from our mistakes”

Matthias Ott stated: “It’s a place that allows us to learn from our mistakes, deconstruct racist and antisemitic prejudices, prejudices we can have in today’s modern society on the others.”

At the end of the visit, he underlined the importance of such a place: “It is by visiting these kinds of places that we can understand the danger of extremisms and how we can resist them as well.”

Camp des Milles memorial site, main partner of the fight against racism, antisemitism and th anti-LGBT hatred

Matthias Ott reminded people that “the fight against antisemitism is as far as today is concerned a priority for the government” since “with no hierarchy of discrimination, the current outburst of antisemitic acts requires a major mobilization of public authorities”.

Alain Chouraqui then underlined that: “nobody found the magical wand that would allow us to win over all hatred.” But if the fight for human rights is never won, it is never completely lost either, but only if you fight it. And we fight it, with the DILCRAH, main support of the foundation in all its priority actions, with the administrative institutions regarding equal opportunities, with other institutions and local authorities - including first and foremost the South region, the 13th department and the city of Aix-en-Provence, as well as numerous republican citizens who today are, obviously and fortunately, a majority in our country.”

The DILCRAH and the foundation of the Camp des Milles are essential partners in the fight against racism, antisemitism, and other discrimination.
In the name of the State, DILCRAH provides 650 000 euros per year to the Camp des Milles memorial center.