Vélodrome d'Hiver
As well as a cycling track, it was used for ice hockey, basketball, wrestling, boxing, roller-skating, circuses, bullfighting, spectaculars, and demonstrations.
In July 1942, French police, acting under orders from the German authorities in Occupied Paris, used the velodrome to hold thousands of Jews and others who were victims in a mass arrest.
The original track was housed in the Salles des Machines, the building used for the industrial display of the World's Fair, which ended in 1900.
In 1902, the Salle des Machines was inspected by Henri Desgrange, who the following year inaugurated the Tour de France on behalf of the newspaper that he edited, L'Auto.
[2] The new track, also designed by Lambert, was 253.16 m round at the base but exactly 250 m on the line ridden by the motor-paced riders (considered the stars of the day).
[1] There could be so many spectators jammed in the track centre for cycling events that they resembled passengers in the Paris métro in the rush hour.
[3] The richer and more knowledgeable spectators bought track-side seats and the rest crowded into the upper balcony from which the track looked a distant bowl.
A rivalry grew between those in the top row and those below them, to the extent that those on high sometimes threw sausages, bread rolls and even bottles onto those below or, if they could throw that far, onto the track.
The Franco-American writer René de Latour said: "I have known the time when it was considered quite a feat to get into the Vel' d'Hiv' during a six-day race.
There were mounted police all round the block, barriers were erected some way from the building, and if you did not have a ticket or a pass to show, you were not allowed anywhere near the place.
Among them were Édith Piaf, Annie Cordy and the accordionist Yvette Horner, who also played from the roof of a car while preceding the Tour de France.
This coalition, cruelly nicknamed the Blue Train [after a luxury rail service patronised by the rich] imposed its rule and sometimes even the times of the race, the length of the rest periods.
The little teams fought back on certain days but, generally, the law belonged to the cracks, better equipped physically and often better organised.
[5] The American writer Ernest Hemingway was a regular fan of six-day and other races at the Vel' d'Hiv' while he lived in Paris.
[6]Boxing began at the Vel' d'Hiv' after a meeting between an American, Jeff Dickson, and Henri Desgrange, the track's main owner and leading promoter.
Professional wrestling in France was relaunched in the catch-as-catch-can style (renamed from "Lutte" to "Catch") at the Vel' d'Hiv' in 1933 by the Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel (FFCP), co-founded by former World Heavyweight Champion Henri Deglane and French rugby player Raoul Paoli.
And their attendants, who were unemployed black people recruited from the streets, stumbled in the sand under their unaccustomed stage clothing.
He is buried in the American cemetery at Omaha Beach west of Caen, beneath the third cross in the front row.
On 7 June 1942, they completed plans for Opération Vent printanier ("Operation Spring Breeze") to arrest 28,000 Jews using 9,000 French policemen.
[1] Needing a place to hold the detainees, the Germans demanded the keys of the Vel' d'Hiv' from its owner, Jacques Goddet, who had taken over from his father Victor and from Henri Desgrange.
[9] The Vel' d'Hiv' had a glass roof, which had been painted dark blue to help avoid attracting bomber navigators.
The dark glass roof, combined with windows screwed shut for security, raised the temperature inside the structure.
[13] The arrested Jews were kept there for five days with only water and food brought by Quakers, the Red Cross and the few doctors and nurses allowed to enter.
Rivière had to drop out after a crash with Anquetil in the first hours; on 12 November, Darrigade won the biggest prime, or intermediate prize, ever offered at the track: one million francs.
Among his stage props was a model of the Eiffel Tower, which he exploded to symbolise the end of the exhibition hall in which he stood.
The claim was more recently reiterated by Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front Party, during the 2017 election campaign.
[19][20][17] On 16 July 2017, also at a ceremony at the Vel' d'Hiv' site, President Emmanuel Macron denounced the historical revisionism that denied France's responsibility for the 1942 round-up and subsequent deportation of 13,000 Jews.
"[23][24] A plaque marking the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv' was placed on the track building after the War and moved to 8 boulevard de Grenelle in 1959.
The words on the Mitterrand-era monument still differentiate between the French Republic and the Vichy Government that ruled during WW II, so they do not accept responsibility for the roundup of the Jews.
The words are in French: "La République française en hommage aux victimes des persécutions racistes et antisémites et des crimes contre l’humanité commis sous l’autorité de fait dite ‘gouvernement de l’État français’ (1940–1944) N’oublions jamais", which translate as follows: "The French Republic pays homage to the victims of racist and anti-Semitic persecutions and crimes against humanity committed under the de facto authority called the 'Government of the French State' 1940–1944.
