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Walter Benjamin
Places of Memory
The Chemin de Walter Benjamin is the path German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin took from Banyuls-sur-Mer in France across the Pyrenees to Portbou in Spain in September 1940 to escape persecution by the Nazis.
After seven exhausting years of exile in different parts of Europe, when the local authorities in Spain threateded to sent him back, Benjamin committed suicide in Portbou. The end of Benjamin's final journey is today remembered with the 'Passages' Memorial - next to the municipal cemetery in Portbou where he was buried.