Night of Museums 2026 at the memorial of the former deportation railway station in Bobigny: the program

The European Night of Museums invites the public once again to push open the doors of cultural venues for a special, often free, late-night event on Saturday, May 23, 2026. It’s a chance to experience museums differently — in a looser, more emotionally engaging, and sometimes more intimate atmosphere.

In Bobigny, the Memorial of the former Bobigny deportation railway station joins this 22nd edition. It’s not a museum like any other: it’s a major historic site in France’s memory of the Shoah. From summer 1943 to summer 1944, this station was the principal site of deportation of Jews from France. In thirteen months, 21 convoys were organized there, taking around 22,500 men, women and children, mostly bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau.

• To be read
• This week's top picks in Paris and Île-de-France for May 4–10, 2026.
• Museum Night 2026: the full program for the next edition in Paris and Île-de-France

Île-de-France: the Memorial at the former Bobigny deportation station
The former deportation station at Bobigny is transformed into a "Memorial". A place of remembrance of the deportation of the Jews of France, this site steeped in history and located in Seine-Saint-Denis opened its doors in January 2023. [Read more]

Here there’s no flashy reconstruction: the force comes from the place itself—its railway surroundings, its traces, and the sheer austerity that defines the route. The station, the old goods hall, the tracks, and the purpose-built belvedere create a sober, deeply communicative visiting space. The memorial, open to the public since January 18, 2023 after a major restoration, interweaves history, transmission, and contemplation in a setting that makes concrete what powered the machinery of deportation.

The 2026 Night of Museums program at the Bobigny Deportation Station Memorial:

• A Poetic and Sonic Stroll Around Charlotte Salomon
  Saturday, May 23, 2026 — 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
  

  As part of the European Night of Museums, visitors are invited to explore an exhibition devoted to the German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon and her major work Life? or Theater? presented through a poetic and sonic walk.

  Designed as an immersive experience, the route blends readings, atmospheric music and the discovery of Salomon’s works. Excerpts from the artist’s writings sit alongside passages from David Foenkinos’s novel Charlotte, and testimonies from deportees of the convoy no. 60, in which Salomon was transported in 1943.

  This exhibition stems from an educational project conducted with a Terminale class at Lycée Louise Michel in Bobigny. The students, involved in every stage of its design, conceived a sensitive parcours that foregrounds the artist’s fate—one marked by exile, persecution and creation.

  Through this proposal, the public is invited to discover a singular body of work while echoing contemporary issues such as multiple identities, discrimination and forms of resistance through art.

  
  
  

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