Besançon Museum of Resistance and Deportation
Passeur d'Histoire(s), a civic tool
The Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation in Besançon is one of the most important in France.
It houses some extraordinary collections, including a collection of deportation art comprising over 600 small paintings, statuettes and drawings produced clandestinely in the Reich's prisons and concentration camps.
Not recommended for children under 10.
A new museum
After more than 10 years of reflection and 3 years of renovation work, the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation reopened its doors on September 8, 2023.
The museum's exceptional collections include over 600 small paintings, statuettes and drawings created clandestinely in the Reich's prisons and concentration camps.
The museum's exhibition spaces have been redesigned around the key idea of the "History Museum as a tool for citizens", which places the emphasis on questioning, knowledge and perspective, and on history as critical knowledge.
It now offers 3 distinct exhibition areas:
- A transformed permanent exhibition space
- A temporary exhibition space, featuring a new exhibition every year
- A space dedicated to deported art, the museum's treasure trove, one of the largest in Europe.
Since its creation, the museum's collections have been built up thanks to donors, illustrating the sometimes intimate bond between the establishment, the witnesses and their families.
Just a stone's throw from the museum, the Monument du Témoin pays tribute to those who were deported.
The Fusillés monument commemorates the sacrifice of 98 members of the Resistance, condemned to death and executed by the German army between 1941 and 1944. It was restored as part of the museum's renovation.
Collection for the 80th anniversary of the Liberation
This year, we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Besançon.
In this context, the Museum of Resistance and Deportation is calling on you: do you have photos, archives or objects related to the Liberation?
Send us an e-mail at transmettre.mrdb@citadelle.besancon.fr.
© Studio Bernardot
Highlights to discover
Embodying the museum's historical themes, discover these collections.
Discover the collections
Some of our collections are available
online.
Discover other rare collections on the Mémoire vive website of the City of Besançon.
Agenda
Focus on ...
Lecture series
Mapping the itinerary of French deportees at Dora
Laurent THIERY - Historian, researcher at the Fondation de la Résistance
Thursday, April 17, 2025, 6:30pm, salle Courbet
Access via 2 or 6 rue Mégevand, Besançon
Free admission
Following on from the research carried out and coordinated by historian Laurent Thiery on the 9,000 deportees from France registered at the Nazi concentration camp of Mittelbau-Dora, 126 of whom were from the Doubs region, Jean-Michel Dozier has designed an innovative computer cartography tool to give a new perspective on the geography of repression and deportation. Developed on the basis of the Dora camp archives and, in particular, the aerial photos and plans that have been preserved, it enables the singular trajectories of each of the 9,000 deportees from France to Dora to be mapped and mapped.
Designed to provide a better understanding of the workings of the concentration camp system and the practices invented by the SS to increase the so-called productivity of deportees subjected to forced labor, the software offers researchers the opportunity to take a fresh look at some of the drawings produced by Léon Delarbre at Dora.