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conference

Deportees from the district of Provéchés-sur-fave
by Patrice Lafaurie vice-president of the Amicale de Mauthausen

Provencheres-sur-Fave (88) on May 18, 2014

Patrice Lafaurie's conference on the deportees from the canton of Provéchés-sur-Fave (Vosges department) was given on the occasion of the installation at the Provéchés town hall of the exhibition “The visible part of the camps”. This international exhibition, the French version of which is managed by the Amicale de Mauthausen, came at the request of the nephew and niece of Maurice Tisserant, who disappeared like Albert Balay and ten other inhabitants of the village of Provencheres, at the Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen.

SUMMARY

(in the video click on the menu titles to access them directly)

Introduction (12'55)

1 - The four periods of the Mauthausen camp and the waves of arrival of deportees from Provéchés (35'48)
- Imprisonment of opponents in the Reich (Germany, Austria): 1938-1939
- Elimination of foreigners: 1940-1942
1941 Provencheres: André ROCHE, prisoner of war finally released.
- Enslavement for arms production: 1943-1944
1943 Provencheres: Paul ROCHATTE, in the first major convoy from France to Mauthausen
1944 Provencheres: Clément HENRY and Pierre LÉONARD
- Collapse of the Mauthausen concentration camp system:
1945 Provencheres: Les Dix: The Auschwitz evacuation death marches

2 - The places (25'55)
- The central camp
- Five annex camps: Wiener Neudorf, Gusen, Melk, Wels, Ebensee

3 - The forgotten deportees of Mauthausen (4'55)

4 - The memory of Mauthausen today in Austria and France (12'27)

http://www.campmauthausen.org/

Director: Stéphan Balay

book

Gendarmes in the Resistance
Pierre Accoce, 2001, Presses de la Cité

The role of the gendarmerie during the Occupation has never been the subject of a serious, objective and exhaustive study. It is still largely obscured by all sorts of distortions and confusions which have never been scrupulously clarified. No, the gendarmerie was not a zealous instrument in the service of the Vichy state. No, the gendarmerie was not a docile relay of the policy of collaboration.

No, the gendarmerie was not massively complicit in the roundups and deportations. On the contrary, many blue soldiers, listening to their conscience, joined the Resistance very early on. They worked in existing networks, created their own branches, fought in the shadows against the occupier.

It is the concern to re-establish an ignored historical truth that inspired Pierre Accoce to write this work. There were a total of 12,000 gendarmes, a quarter of the force's workforce, who actively participated in the Resistance. A percentage that no other profession can boast of and which testifies to the rooting of patriotic and republican values among these guardians of order and security.

Ceremony

Baptismal ceremony for the 506th class of student gendarmes at the Chaumont gendarmerie school.

On June 10, 2021, the 506th class of student gendarmes at the Chaumont Gendarmerie School was named after Albert Balay, it's godfather. Albert's segment begins at 45 minutes.

Photos from the ceremony : www.facebook.com/esog.fr/posts/1156365371552418

Facebook group

Gendarmes in the Resistance
groupe facebook.png

This group aims to commemorate ''The Gendarmes in the Resistance''.

 

Echo of the Book/Bible of Pierre ACCOCE with the assistance of the Historical Service of the National Gendarmerie and ESSOR (Presse de lacité-2001): Dixit: The epics experienced by these resistance fighters have to date been amply described, the participation of A good number of Gendarmes in their struggles are, however, little known.

 

Quote: Colonel Paul PAILLOLE provided an explanation for this ignorance: A hateful, partisan, stubborn campaign has only wanted to retain since the liberation the unpleasant aspects of the role of the Gendarmerie during the occupation.

 

She highlighted the regrettable detail, glossing over the essential, and deliberately forgetting that without the Gendarmerie, its understanding, its courage, its patriotism, most of the resistance groups could not have survived! There were a total of 12,000 gendarmes, a quarter of the force's workforce, to actively participate in the resistance. 1,141 were shot or died in Germany, in prison, in deportation or on their return from deportation.

Internet links

Dachau concentration camp
Camp de concentration de Auschwitz-Birkenau 
Amicale de Mauthausen - deportees, families and friends
Amicale de Mauthausen - deportees, families and friends
Section currently being written - Suggest other links

Keywords: gendarmes resistance fighters, resistance, Sengler network, deportation, concentration camp, Shoah, holocaust, Hitler, SS, gestapo, Dachau, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Ebensee, gas chamber, provenchères-sur-Fave, gendarmerie, World War II, 39 45

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