Since the end of the war, the site’s history and the way it perpetuates memory have changed with France’s collective consciousness. Struthof is now a national site for remembrance of the deportation.

Every French president in office has paid his respects at the deportation memorial:

• General de Gaulle on 23 July 1960, in order to inaugurate it
• Georges Pompidou on 28 June 1970 on the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the camps
• Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on 29 June 1980 for the 35th anniversary
• François Mitterrand on 28 April 1985 for the 40th anniversary ;
• Jacques Chirac on 3 November 2005 in order to close the ceremonies of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps and inaugurate the European Centre of Deported Resistance Members.

Every day nearly 1,300 people visit the site, half of them schoolchildren. In the heart of Europe, Struthof has become a crossroads between generations, countries and their criss-crossing histories.

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