In 1944 the Nazi Gestapo from Lyon, under Klaus Barbie, sent two vans to the French village of Izieu. The mission was to exterminate the children of an orphanage known as La Maison d'Izieu.

In a senseless raid, 44 Jewish children aged 4 to 13 years, and 7 adult caretakers were thrown into a van and sent to Auschwitz and immediately gassed.