On April 6, 1944, Klaus Barbie's Gestapo raided the Izieu children's home, deporting 44 children and 7 adults to death camps.
On the morning of April 6, 1944, forces of the Gestapo under the command of Klaus Barbie, the notorious "Butcher of Lyon," raided the children's home at Izieu. Sabine Zlatin was away in Montpellier at the time, seeking a new, safer location for the children after growing concerned about increasing danger in the region — a fact that would haunt her for the rest of her life, as she was the sole staff member to survive.
Forty-four children, aged from four to seventeen, along with seven adult caretakers, were arrested and deported. Nearly all were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau or other extermination camps; only one of the adults survived the war. This event stands as one of the most documented and devastating individual atrocities against Jewish children during the Holocaust in France, due in part to a telex sent by Barbie himself, which survived as damning evidence.
The raid became central evidence in the 1987 trial of Klaus Barbie, the first trial in France for crimes against humanity, where Zlatin testified as a civil party. Her tireless efforts to document the fates of the children and pursue justice were instrumental in securing Barbie's conviction.
The tragedy transformed Zlatin into a lifelong advocate for Holocaust memory, leading directly to the founding of the Izieu memorial site decades later.