Guy Môquet was born in Paris on 26 April 1924. Shortly after enrolling in the Lycée Carnot, he developed a passionate interest in politics and decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, the railroad workers' trade union leader and Communist deputy Prosper Môquet. A First World War veteran, Prosper Môquet (1897-1986) joined the French railways, where he became a trade union activist. He joined the French Communist Party in 1926 and was elected a deputy in 1936. Despite the party's dissolution in 1939, he continued following the party line and did not condemn the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed on 23 August 1939. He took part in the creation of the French Workers and Farmers Group. He was arrested with 43 other deputies from the group in October 1939, stripped of his office in January 1940 and, like his comrades, sentenced to five years' imprisonment in April. In March 1941 he and other Communist deputies were deported to the Maison-Carrée penal colony in Algeria. Prosper Môquet was released in February 1943 after General de Gaulle's arrival in Algiers, and became a deputy again after the war.

After Prosper was arrested, Guy, his mother Juliette and his little brother Serge took refuge in Bréhal, near the English Channel. He returned to Paris alone and became a fervent activist in the Communist youth movement, which had been clandestinely reorganised. He distributed pamphlets and glued stickers proclaiming the party's policy, including after the Germans' triumphant march into Paris on 14 June 1940 and the proclamation of the French State on 10 July. Meanwhile, Guy kept up a correspondence with his father and tried to obtain his release. In November he wrote Edouard Herriot, president of the National Assembly, a long poem in alexandrine. Here is an excerpt: [align=center]"I am a young Frenchman, and I love my homeland I have a Frenchman's heart, which must take a stand That you return his father, he who remained true To our beautiful France with so much virtue.[/align] On 13 October 1940, French policemen looking for Communist activists arrested 16-year-old Guy Môquet at the Gare de l'Est railway station in Paris. He was interrogated. The police wanted him to give them the names of his father's friends.

The young activist was incarcerated in Fresnes prison and indicted on the same charge as his father: 'infraction of the decree of 26 September 1939 disbanding Communist organisations". On 23 January 1941, he was acquitted by the 15th correctional chamber of Paris and set to be released on probation. But Guy Môquet was not freed. Instead, he was transferred to the Santé prison in Paris on 10 February. The teenager became impatient and wrote to the prosecutor but nothing was done. He was moved to Clairvaux prison, in the Aube, and from there to the Choisel camp in Châteaubriant, in Loire-Inférieure (Loire-Atlantique today), where other Communist activists, most of whom had been arrested between autumn 1939 and 1940, were held.

He arrived on 16 May 1941 and was in barrack 10, the young people's barrack, where he made many friends. On 20 October 1941, three Communist Resistance fighters in Nantes, Marcel Bourdarias, Gilbert Brustlein and Spartaco Guisco, killed Feldkommandant Karl Hotz, commander of the occupation troops in Loire-inférieure. The occupiers decided to shoot 50 hostages in reprisal.

The Vichy government's interior minister, Pierre Pucheu, offered a list, mainly of Communists, including 27 prisoners in the Choisel camp. Among them were Charles Michels, the General Confederation of Labour's (CGT) secretary-general for the hide and leather industries, Jean-Pierre Timbaud, director of metalworking at the CGT and Guy Môquet, son of a Communist deputy. Twenty-one other people were shot in Nantes and Paris at the same time.

Guy Môquet is going to die. A few minutes before being led to the place of execution, gathered with his comrades in barrack 6, he wrote his last letter to his family, the famous letter starting with "I am going to die!" and ending with "I kiss you with all my child's heart". Then he scribbled a last little note to a young Communist, Odette Leclan (today Odette Nilès), an activist in the Union of Young Women of France. He had met her a month earlier just after she had been interned at the Choisel camp and kept in touch with her through a wooden stockade surmounted by a fence that separated the boys' and girls' sections. The young Guy quickly fell in love and, in his last lines, wrote how sorry he was that he would never have the kiss she had promised him.

On 22 October 1941, the 27 hostages were shot in three groups in the sand quarry just outside Châteaubriand. They refused to be blindfolded. With their last breath they cried out "Long live France!" The next day, the Germans scattered the bodies of those whom General de Gaulle called "martyrs" in a radio speech on 25 October in several cemeteries. "By shooting our martyrs," de Gaulle said, "the enemy thought it could frighten France. But France will show that she is fearless."

Guy Môquet's body was later transported to Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris (square 97) and buried alongside his brother and mother. Guy Môquet was posthumously made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour and given the Croix de Guerre and Medal of the Resistance.

Links to other sites Site: www.education.gouv.fr Site: www.crdp-reims.fr Site: www.cidem.org Site: www.chateaubriant.org Site sur Victor Renelle

Emile Henry Muselier was born in Marseille on the 17th April 1882 and died in Toulon on the 2nd September 1965. He was a student at the Naval College from 1899 to 1901. From then until 1939 he had a brilliant career, during which he alternated between positions on active duty (in the Far East from 1902 until 1905, Yser in 1915 etc.) and in high public office (a member of the cabinets of Painlevé, Jeanneney and Clemenceau). He was ranked Ship of the Line Ensign first class in 1902 and promoted to Ship-of-the-Line Lieutenant in 1912, Ship-of-the-Line Captain in 1926, Rear Admiral in 1933 and Vice Admiral in 1939. Just after his last promotion he retired, but joined General de Gaulle in London on the 30th June 1940. The latter gave him the task of creating the Free French Naval Forces (les Forces navales françaises libres, or FNFL) and the Free French Air Forces (les Forces aériennes françaises libres or FAFL). He carried out the role of Chief of the FNFL until the 30th April 1942. Appointed Commissioner to the Navy on the National Committee, in December 1941 he directed the expedition that resulted in the liberation of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. He resigned from the National Committee on the 3rd March 1942. He teamed up with General Giraud in Algiers in May 1943 and in June he was appointed Deputy Commander in Chief of the North African Maritime Forces. In August 1943, following the merging of the FNFL with the North African Maritime Forces, he was relieved of his duties.

In September 1944 he was appointed Head of the Naval Delegation to the Military Mission for National Defence, in charge of German Affairs. He retired from active service in June 1946. Up until 1960, he worked as an engineering advisor for the company Laignel. He was also involved with organisations for ex-servicemen and First World War ex-marine fusiliers and was appointed Honorary president of the Franco-Belgian Union of Servicemen of the Yser and Flanders and President of the National Help the Aged Association. Vice Admiral Muselier was a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, a Friend of the Liberation and a Friend of the Order of the Bath. He was also a holder of the War Cross for the 1914-1918 war and the War Cross for overseas operations. Amongst his published works, Marine et Résistance(The Navy and Resistance) (1945) and De Gaulle contre de Gaulle (De Gaulle against Gaullism) (1946) are of note.

Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900 and spent his childhood in the Les Halles district. Showing little interest in school, he preferred the world of comics and adventure novels. At the age of 16, he became a sales assistant in a hardware store. In 1918, his first writings appeared in La Tribune des jeunes (The young people's Tribune), and an anthology of his poems Le Fard des argonautes (The colour of the Argonauts) was published in an avant-garde review, Le Trait d'union (The Hyphen) in 1919. The following year, he discovered the Dada movement with Benjamin Perret and André Breton, a group that he joined after his military service in Morocco. When surrealism, which had a great influence on the literature between the wars, replaced Dadaism, Desnos became a fundamental key player: automatic writing and dreaming under hypnosis gave birth to strange poetry and aphorisms: Prose Sélavy, L'Aumonyme, L'asile ami... (Sélavy Prose, The Aumonyme, The refuge friend) "The blade that slices the affliction of the soul, does it unveil to friends the fiction of the affection?"(Prose Sélavy) Between 1924 and 1929, he was editor at La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution), as well as accountant, cashier and journalist at Paris-Soir (Paris Evening paper) and then at Soir (Evening), gradually dividing his love life between the singer Yvonne George - who died in 1930 - and Youki Foujita. La liberté ou l'amour, La mystérieuse and Siramour (Liberty or Love, The mysterious woman and Siramour) date from this period. In 1926, he moved to the Montparnasse district, rubbing shoulders with the Prévert brothers, Raymond Queneau and Joan Miro.

Discovering whether or not the surrealist spirit was compatible with political commitment - communism - caused the breakup of the group, leading to the trading of insults between Desnos, Prévert, Soupault and a few others with Breton, Aragon and Eluard... In the 1930s, Desnos' work developed: he wrote less, launching himself into radio - as a programme producer and advertising copywriter - and into song-writing and cinema. Coming from a modest background, he wanted culture to permeate into everyone's lives. "The moon, nest of glow worms, Makes its way across the sky. She sows on the children, On all the beautiful sleeping children, Dream upon dream, drop by drop."(Chantefables et Chantefleurs)
But the artist within him saw the international tensions as a threat to freedom: he joined the Watchfulness Committee of Antifascist Intellectuals, campaigned for the Spanish republicans and unashamedly put on a uniform in 1939. Demobilised after the defeat of June 1940, he joined the Aujourd'hui (Today) newspaper. In 1942, he joined the "Agir" (Act) Résistance network, taking part in clandestine press operations and rediscovered literature in the form of pamphlets and novels (Maréchal Duconno and Etat de veille (Marshall Duconno and Sate of Sleeplessness) etc."I am the vigil at the Golden Door Around the dungeon the Bois de Vincennes deepened their darkness I heard cries coming from the direction of Créteil And trains roll towards the east leaving a vapour trail of rebellion songs."(Destinée arbitraire)(Random Destination) On 22 February 1944, Desnos was arrested and taken to Fresnes prison. The Compiègne-Royallieu camp, to which he was transferred on 20 March, was the first stage of his deportation. On 12 May, he left for Buchenwald. On 25 May, he reached the camp at Flossenburg and then on 2 June, the sub-camp at Flohä. When the Allies broke through into Germany, the Nazis evacuated the camps, executing the deportees or sending them on one of the many dreadful staggered journeys to their deaths. Having left on 14 April 1945, Desnos thus arrived in Theresienstadt (Terezin) in Czechoslovakia, a town liberated by the Russians on 8 May. Suffering from typhus, he died on the 8th June 1945. His remains are laid to rest in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

The future poet was born in Quimper (Finistère department) on 12 July 1876, into a Jewish family from Prussia. In 1888 the family changed its name from Alexandre to Jacob.

Being the son of a tailor, his studies at the Lycée in Quimper, his 8th place in the Concours Général in philosophy and his admission to the colonial school did not seem to predispose him to the life of an artist that he took up in 1897 when he moved to Paris. He was attracted by the spirit of the latest artistic trends, he met Picasso in 1901 and spent much time with the artists at the "Bateau-Lavoir", where he also took up residence in 1911. In 1903, he published “The Story of King Kabul the First and Gawain the Kitchen Boy”.

Many of his works were illustrated by his friends: Derain for the Brother Matorel burlesque and mystic works, Pablo Picasso for “The siege of Jerusalem”, Juan Gris for “Ne coupez pas mademoiselle,” etc.

He converted to Catholicism in 1909, and was baptised on 18 February 1915 at the Couvent de Sion in Paris. Picasso was his godfather. He was found unfit for combat and did not take part in World War I, and in 1916-1917 he adopted surrealism, writing “The Dice Box”.

Albert Speer (19 March 1905, Mannheim - 1 September 1981, London)

Born into a family of architects, Albert Speer studied at the technical schools of Karlsruhe, Munich and Berlin, where he was taught by Heinrich Tessenow, qualifying in 1931. On hearing a speech by Hitler in 1930, he was filled with enthusiasm for National Socialism, and joined the party in January the following year, as its 474 481st member.

Hard-working, efficient and talented, Speer excelled in many competitions and was noticed by Hitler who, on becoming chancellor, made him his own personal architect tasked with building the city of Berlin. In 1933, he received his first official commission, from Joseph Goebbels: to contribute to the restoration of the Chancellery building in Berlin. The following year, he designed the setting for the Nuremberg Rallies, based on the ancient site of Pergamon, in Turkey. In 1937, Speer designed the German pavilion for the Paris Exposition.

His organisational talents earned him an appointment as Minister for Armaments in 1942, succeeding Fritz Todt. In 1943, he assisted Herman Goering with the Reich’s economic planning, drawing on Todt’s organisational principles: forced labour for the construction of roads and strategic sites.

Coming under suspicion in July 1944, following the failed assassination attempt against Hitler, he was saved only by the annotation “if possible” made by Claus von Stauffenberg on the list of plotters contacted to form a post-Hitler government.

Speer succeeded in maintaining a high level of German activity in 1944, at the height of the Allied bombings, even going so far as to limit the scorched earth policy desired by Hitler, in the latter months of the war.

In 1946, he was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials, where he sat apart from the defendants’ bench and acknowledged his own guilt, though denying any responsibility for the Final Solution. This earned him the epithet “good Nazi”, but it would later be called into question in Der Spiegel newspaper, on 2 May 2005.

Held in the fortress of Spandau together with the likes of Karl Dönitz, Walter Funk, Rudolf Hess, Konstantin von Neurath, Erich Raeder and Baldur von Schirach, he was released in 1966.

Speer’s image as a “good Nazi” enabled him to join the SPD, which saw him as a model of German repentance and renewal.

His published writings include Erinnerungen and Spandauer Tagebücher. Speer died of a brain haemorrhage in London in 1981, while participating in a series of programmes for the BBC.

Source : MINDEF/SGA/DMPA

Léon Gambetta was born on the 2nd April 1838 in Cahors, the adopted town of his Genoan father Joseph, and Marie Madeleine Orasie Massabie, the daughter of a pharmacist from Molières, a town in the Tarn-et-Garonne region. Whilst still very young, Léon stood out because of his intelligence and tremendous memory. He became a boarder at the lower seminary of Montfaucon before completing his schooling at Cahors grammar school. A candidate in the national education competition, he won the French dissertation prize and then obtained an Arts Baccalaureate in 1856, aged 17. To the great displeasure of his father who wanted him to take over his business, the young man, who was a talented speaker, left for Paris in January 1857 and enrolled in law school to follow a career as a lawyer. He requested and was granted French nationality on the 29th October 1859. He had his vive voce for his law degree on the 19th January the following year and took his oath on the 8th June 1861. His first defence cases set him against parliamentary opposition groups from the "left" (the Republicans). The Baudin subscription affair (1851) made him famous in 1868. This case was brought by the Imperial government against newspapers advocating a subscription with a view to building a monument in memory of this elected representative, who was killed on the 3rd December on the streets of Faubourg Saint-Antoine fighting for the people.

The young lawyer took the opportunity to make a closing speech criticising the regime of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. In January 1870, as member of parliament for the district of Marseille, he stood against the government of Emile Ollivier whose support for Napoléon III was perceived as treachery by the Republicans. However, Gambetta called for national unity and passed a bill for military funding on the eve of war. During the night of the 3rd to the 4th September, Léon Gambetta, after having attempted in vain to appease the revolutionary situation arising from the announcement of the capitulation of Sedan, announced the fall of the Empire in the Bourbon Palace, which had been invaded by the mob. In the Town hall, he witnessed the declaration of the Government for the national defence, with which he became associated alongside Jules Simon and Ernest Picard. On his own initiative he settled in to the ministry of the interior and ordered the dismissal of the prefects of the Empire. At the same time he organised the capital's defences. On the 7th September in a besieged Paris, Léon Gambetta appeared like somebody heaven-sent. Opposite a government that was overwhelmed by the situation, he led the national defence in the provinces. Gambetta was the embodiment of resistance against the Prussian occupier. He took off in a balloon to join the Tours delegation via Montdidier, Amiens and Rouen, adding the war department to his portfolio, setting up new armies, supervising the training and provision of troops, building factories, increasing official visits, with briefings and speeches calling to "prolong the war until extermination". At the same time the capital was subject to a siege by the imperialists: the city was bombarded and the population starved. Adolphe Thiers ended up commissioning (22nd January 1871) Jules Favre, the minister for overseas affairs, to approach Bismarck in order to agree an armistice. Gambetta distanced himself from the political scene and negotiations because of a decree that he signed in Bordeaux making Empire assembly members of ineligible. He resigned on the 6th February.

Gambetta was elected on nine lists during the general elections of the 8th February 1871: in the East, Paris, Marseille and Algeria. He chose the Lower Rhine. He voted against the peace agreement and expressed his intention to recover the lost provinces. Returning from his retreat in Saint-Sébastien and having lost his seat in parliament on the 2nd July, he campaigned in the Bouches-du-Rhône and Seine regions. As MP for the Seine, Gambetta formed an extreme left parliamentary party "the Republican Union", founded a newspaper, La République française, increasing his speeches in the provinces, during which he castigated the conservative policy of the National Assembly and displayed militant anticlericalism. In the commotion of the restored republican sovereignty, he took part in the debates that gave rise to constitutional laws and contributed to the passing of the Walloon amendment on the 28th January 1875. Léon Gambetta then concentrated on promoting the new regime during the electoral ballot campaign of January and February 1876. In Bordeaux (13th February), he outlined the reforms necessary: the separation of the Church from the State, the creation of income tax, the reestablishment of the right to meetings and associations, a measure that he overturned at "opportune" moments for fear of upsetting the rural electorate, who were the demographical majority. The ballot of the 20th February sanctioned his work. Gambetta was elected in several districts and opted for Belleville. Marshal de Mac-Mahon, however, did not call him into his ministry. He preferred figures who were further "to the right". Gambetta took advantage of the crisis that arose from the constitution of the de Broglie ministry to unite the Republican vote and cause the dissolution of the Chamber - it was to be his only victory in his unsuccessful attempt to unite the parties to the left.
A tactician and orator of the highest order, Gambetta made the summer electoral campaign his own, before pronouncing in his speech in Lille (15th August) directed at the President of the Republic, the phrase "accept or resign", a remark that would earn him a conviction of three months in prison, a sentence that he would not serve. Having acceded to "republican sainthood", he preferred however to promote Jules Grévy on the 3rd September to the position of head of State and remain in the background. Political crises followed: Gambetta stood against Marshal de Mac-Mahon with vehemence. He ended up securing his resignation, the latter having refused to sign the decree to lay off ten generals of the army corps (20th January 1879). Refusing once more to head the regime, Gambetta let Jules Grévy succeed Mac-Mahon and contented himself with the presidency of the chamber (31st January 1879). From a symbolic role which he carried out elegantly, Gambetta, who in the eyes of President Grévy no longer represented a political obstacle, rose to the presidency of the council on the 10th November 1881. He thus finally believed it possible to turn France into a stable and peaceful country, reunited around the republican way of thinking. The new head of State tried to establish a large ministry, uniting all of the important figures from the "left". Jules Ferry, Léon Say, Henri Brisson and Charles de Freycinet and the heads of various movements all refused the offer. His government had barely been formed (on the 14th January 1882) when it was toppled after 74 days, following a legislative bill on the ways of appointing senators and electing representatives to the chamber. Freycinet succeeded him, surrounded by those very people who had refused to give him their support.

Léon Gambetta then withdrew from politics. He settled in the Nice area, no longer taking part in debates except for the one on the 18th July 1882 requesting that French presence be maintained in Egypt. Retired to les Jardies (Ville-d'Avray), with his companion Léonie Léon, Gambetta was the victim of a fire arm accident that confined him to bed for the whole of November. This inactivity was fatal for him. He died on the 31st December 1882 following an intestinal infection and appendicitis that was not operated upon. A republican hero, the founding "father" of the Third Republic, Léon Gambetta was an incontrovertible key figure in "helping to understand that a regime that was initially modern and popular, that of Napoléon III, could be replaced by a republic that added to these same qualities, the quality of deep liberalism" (M. Aghulon). His state funeral was held on the 6th January 1883. Monuments were erected to him throughout France: in Bordeaux (25th April 1905), Nice (25th April 1909), etc. The one erected in the Tuileries gardens would disappear under the German occupation.

Son of Antoine Georges François (15 March 1769 - 19 July 1832) and of Julie Verdier de la Coste, François, Ernest Chabaud-Latour was born in Nîmes on 25 January 1804.
He graduated in seventh place from Ecole Polytechnique in 1820 and opted for Engineering. In 1829 he briefly took part, alongside the Russian army, in the siege of the fortified places of Danube, and was then called to Paris to serve in Polignac's ministry.

In 1830 he volunteered to leave for Algiers and was later decorated following the bombing of Fort de l'Empereur and the occupation of Blida.

Appointed Officer of Honour of the Duke of Orléans, a role he performed until the Prince's death in 1842, he took part in the campaign of Belgium and the taking of Antwerp. Chabaud-Latour also followed the Duke of Orléans during the Algeria campaigns (1837, 1839, 1840) and took part in events in Sig, Habra, Mascara, and then, in 1839, in the battle of Portes de Fer, which earned him the Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honour and, in 1840, in the combats of Medea, El-Affroun, Col de Mouzaïa and Bois des Oliviers.

In 1840, when the issue of fortifications for Paris was raised, he recommended, in his preliminary project, the construction of a continuous fortified wall and a ring of forts to protect the population from the rigours of a siege.

As deputy of the Gard (1837 to 1848, Guizot ministry) he was able to defend his project in front of Parliament.

As head of engineering, he personally took care of the Eastern sector of the Paris wall and supervised work until 1846.

He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1842 and became the aide-de-camp for the Count of Paris when the Duke of Orléans died. In 1846 he was made a Colonel and left to command the 3rd engineering regiment in Arras. In February 1848 he was still loyal to the Orléans family, to the point of offering to resign following the king's abdication. Placed on non-active status for a few weeks, he was called to the Amiens engineering department and then, following the coup d'état on 2 December 1851, he returned to his duties in Grenoble.

He was commander-in-chief of engineering in Algeria in 1852, where he remained for five years, taking part in the Babors expedition in 1853, the Beni-Iuya expedition in 1854, the Guetchoula expedition in 1855 and the Grande-Kabylie expedition in 1857. A talented planner, he built the Tizi-Ouzou to Souk-el-Arba road in 16 days and he had Fort-Napoléon built in four months, in the centre of the Béni Raten tribe. He also managed the building of dams on rivers and created several villages.

Brigadier General on 30 April 1853, Chabaud-Latour was promoted to Division General after the campaigns of 1857 and 1858, date of his return to Paris. He was called to the fortifications committee, to the general inspectorate of fortified places, engineering regiments and Ecole polytechnique, and to the advisory committee on Algerian affairs. During the war in Italy, he commanded the engineering corps posted on the Eastern frontier for observation duties. He became Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1861, president of the fortifications committee in 1864, and then reserve cadre on 25 January 1869.

Called back to activity in 1870, Chabaud-Latour was put in charge of engineering of the Paris defence system and took over chairmanship of the fortifications committee. He renovated the capital's fortified camp so that it could only be bombed on its left bank from the unfinished redoubts of Châtillon and Montretout.

His son, Arthur Henri Alphonse (1839-1910), from his marriage with Hélène Mathilde Périer, a graduate of St Cyr, proved himself during battles of the Loire and received the Legion of Honour for his exemplary behaviour. Lissagaray wrote the following: "This Paris, for which Hoche, Marceau, Kleber would have been neither too young, nor too faithful, nor too pure, had for generals the residue of the Empire and Orleanism, Vinoy of December, Ducrot, Luzanne, Leflô, and a fossil like Chabaud-Latour."

The wall, commonly called the Thiers wall, measured 35 kilometres long (its line corresponds to the current ring road) and had 94 bastions, 17 doors and 8 sally-ports.  In some parts, the base was made of 40 centimetres of concrete. The exterior pavement, like the side walls, was made of millstone and a succession of rubble bonded by hydraulic mortar. Appointed Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour for this, he was kept in activity with no age limit.

He was elected deputy of the Gard in February at the National Assembly – on the centre right – and chaired the army commission in charge of writing the 1872 military law. He was also rapporteur for the draft project on new forts to be built around Paris and was Vice-President of the Assembly several times. Chabaud-Latour was a member of the defence committee and put his talent to organising the new Eastern border.

An eminent character of the State, he was appointed in 1873 to judge Marshal Bazaine, accused of contributing to the defeat of France during the war between France and Germany in 1870.

Called on 20 July 1874 by Marshal de Mac-Mahon to Home Affairs duties until 10 March 1875, he supported the Duke of Broglie, in full debate concerning the  seven-year plan. He failed in the Senate elections on 30 January 1876 but was appointed irremovable senator on 10 November in the following year.

He died in Paris on 10 June 1885 after falling down the stairs in the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest, of which he was administrator.
 

The face of the commitment of the Catholic church in France towards the internees, Mgr Saliège was the first French prelate to protest against the deportation of Jews from the Récébédou and Noé camps. Jules Saliège, originally from the Cantal, was destined from an early age into the priesthood. He entered the small seminary in Pleaux and then enrolled at the large seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux. He was ordained on 21 September 1895 and two years later became the Superior at Saint-Flour, after having taught philosophy and ethics there. Mobilised in 1914, during the war he was a volunteer military chaplain. He was posted to the 163rd infantry division. Demobilised in 1918, he returned to his duties at the head of the seminary before being appointed Bishop of Gap in 1925. Pious XI made him Archbishop of Toulouse and Narbonne in 1928 to succeed Mgr Germain. In 1931, he was paralysed following an attack of hemiplegia. After the Armistice of 22 June 1940, Mgr Saliège added a political hue to his pastoral activity, standing up against the racial laws of the Vichy government in March 1941.

He went into action out in the field, supporting the charities helping those detained (republicans Spaniards, Jews and the politically opposed), in the camps at Noé and Récébédou. In August 1943, he was the first French prelate to denounce the use of the French camps as an anti-chamber of Auschwitz. On 23 August 1942, he wrote in a pastoral letter: "That children, women, men, fathers, mothers should be treated as a wretched herd, that members of the same family should be separated from one another and embarked for unknown destinations, was a sad spectacle reserved for our times to see... In our diocese terrible scenes have taken place in the camps of Noé and Récébédou. These Jews are men, these Jewesses are women. All is not permissible against them... They belong to mankind. They are our brothers like so many others. No Christian can forget that." Although it was banned by prefectorial decree, this letter was still read out in most parishes and, most importantly, was taken up and transmitted by the BBC. In September 1942, the Récébédou camp was closed. At the same time, he organised the resettling of Jews in the area surrounding Toulouse. Other ecclesiastical figures followed his example, including Mgr Théas, in charge of the diocese of Montauban. On 24 March 1944, addressing French Catholic scouts leaving for Germany, he openly criticised national socialism and was almost deported, escaping from this fate because of his reputation and the state of his health. On the Liberation, General de Gaulle awarded him the medal of the Résistance and made him Companion of the Liberation (law of 7 August 1945). In October 1945, on his sacerdotal jubilee and his appointment as assistant at the pontifical throne, Mgr Saliège was cheered by the crowd for his acts of resistance. On 18 February 1946, he was made Cardinal Priest of S. Pudenziana by the Consistory.

Weakened by his hemiplegia, he was assisted by Mgr Garrone, but continued to occupy the role of chancellor of the Toulouse catholic institute and to be a member of the Roman Congregations of the Sacraments, Nuns and Ceremonials. He died on 4 November 1956 at the age of eighty-six and is buried in the Saint-Etienne cathedral in Toulouse.

His writings reflect a life of commitment: Lettre pastorale de Mgr l'Archevêque de Toulouse (pastoral letter of Mgr Archbishop of Toulouse), (1937); Notes de son Excellence Mgr Saliège (Notes of his Excellency Mgr Saliège) (1945) ; Un Evêque français sous l'Occupation (A French Bishop under the Occupation) (1945) ; Le Temps présent et l'action catholique (The Present Time and Catholic Action) (1946) ; Le Prêtre, le Temps présent et l'Action catholique (The Priest, the Present Time and Catholic Action) (1946) ; Les menus Propos du Cardinal Saliège (Cardinal Saliège's Small-talk) (1947) ; Lourdes Pax Christi (1948) ; Lettre pastorale de S.E. le Cardinal Archevêque de Toulouse au Clergé et aux fidèles de son diocèse (Pastoral letter from the S.E. Cardinal Archbishop of Toulouse to the Clergy and the faithful of his diocese)(1948) ; Son Excellence Mgr Gabriel Brunhès, Evêque de Montpellier 1932-1949 (His Excellency Mgr Gabriel Brunhès, Bishop of Montpellier 1932-1949) (1949) ; Ma vie par le Christ. Lettre du Cardinal Saliège et de Mgr Houssaron, (My life in Christ. Letter from Cardinal Saliège and from Mgr Houssaron (1952) ; Mgr Maisonobe, Evêque de Belley, 1882-1954 (Mgr Maisonobe, Bishop of Belley, 1882-1954 (1955).

Joseph Doumenc (Born Grenoble, 16 November 1880 – Died Massif du Pelvoux, 21 July 1948):

After graduating from the Polytechnique, a prestige engineering school, and then enrolling at the School of Applied Artillery in Fontainebleau, Joseph Édouard Aimé Doumenc joined the École Supérieure de Guerre, a French institution for military higher education, in 1907. A captain in the armed forces staff of the 19th Army Corps, he served at the border between Algeria and Morocco before being posted to the 60th Artillery Regiment in Troyes. During the First World War, as deputy to the director of the automobile section before being promoted to director in 1917, he earned a reputation for arranging the road transportation of supplies and relief troops during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Furthermore, between November 1916 and March 1917, he, along with General Estienne, was a pioneer in the development of the first tanks. He was appointed commander in 1918. After serving on a military campaign in Morocco in 1925, he was made commander of the 1st Infantry Division then commander of the 1st Military Region. In 1938, he was appointed to the Conseil Supérieur de la Guerre (the Higher War Council or CSG). In 1939, after being promoted to army general, he was sent to Moscow as head of the French delegation tasked with negotiating a military agreement with the USSR, but a German-Soviet was signed and his mission was terminated. When war was declared, he was put in charge of the Anti-Air Defence for the country before holding the post of Major General in January 1940. He left the service in 1942. He died in a mountaineering accident in the Alps in 1948.

General Doumenc was made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 with nine bronze star attachments, the Croix de Guerre for overseas theatres of operations and several foreign decorations.

Publications: Commandant Doumenc Les transports automobiles sur le front français 1914-1918 (1920).

1904 Born in Neheim, Westphalia (Germany), on 21 September.

1926 Attends the conference La Paix par la Jeunesse (Peace by Youth), at Bierville (France), on the invitation of Marc Sangnier.

1928 Studies in Paris at the Institut Catholique Séminaire des Carmes.

1932 Ordained a priest in Paderborn.

1934 Rector of the German parish of Paris.

1940 German chaplain of three Paris prisons: Fresnes, La Santé and Cherche-Midi.

1944 Provides support and assistance to prisoners sentenced to death (over 1 000 at Mont Valérien) or deportation and their families.

1945 Superior of the Séminaire des Barbelés, Le Coudray (Eure et Loir).

1948 Dies in Paris on 24 February.

1963 Ratification of the Franco-German treaty of friendship and reconciliation. Stock’s body is transferred to the church of Saint Jean-Baptiste de Rechêvres (Chartres).

The séminaire des Barbelés

Few embodied the desire for Franco-German reconciliation like Franz Stock

Stock’s life was an expression of love for humanity. His moral legacy remains in the books and accounts by those who met him in the extreme circumstances of war.

The most tangible reminder of Stock in France is at Le Coudray, near Chartres

It is the building which, between 1945 and 1947, housed what became known as the Séminaire des Barbelés, or “Barbed Wire Seminary”. Under Stock’s directorship, the site received nearly 1 000 young German and Austrian POWs, priests and seminarians who would contribute to building the new Germany.

In the 1960s, organisations were set up in both France and Germany by those who wanted this exceptional individual to serve as a model on both sides of the Rhine for all those wishing to contribute to reconciliation between the two countries and to building a peaceful Europe.

The Franz Stock European Meeting Centre

Today, three organisations –

• Association Chartraine Franz Stock
• Franz Stock Komitee
• Les amis de l'abbé Stock

– have decided to set up a Franz Stock European Meeting Centre (CERFS) in the buildings of the Séminaire des Barbelés. Work got underway a few days ago, and all the French and German organisations will be contributing to the success of the project.

Source : Association Française Les Amis de l'Abbé Stock

NAPOLEON III (Paris, 20 April 1808-Chiselhurst, 9 January 1873)

Third son of Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland and Napoleon I's brother, and of Hortense de Beauharnais, the Emperor's sister-in-law. His tutor was the son of Convention member Le Bas, who instilled him with a love for the history of the French Revolution. In 1830 he left for Italy in his uncle's footsteps, joined the carbonari movement and took part in Menotti's uprising against Pope Gregory XVI in Romagna. The mantle of Bonapartist legitimacy passed to Louis Napoleon after the Duke of Reichstadt's death in 1832. With Persigny's help, on 30 October 1836 he unsuccessfully tried to rouse an uprising of the Strasbourg garrison. Louis-Philippe exiled him to Brazil. From there he went to the United States, moving in 1837 to England, where he defended his idea of "democratic Caesarism" in his book Les Idées napoléoniennes (1839) and took advantage of the Bonapartist fervour sweeping France after word spread that Napoleon's ashes would be brought to Paris. After another unsuccessful attempt to lead an uprising, this time in Boulogne on 6 August 1840, he was arrested, tried before the Court of Peers, sentenced to life in prison and locked up in Fort Ham (Somme). In May 1846 he escaped and fled to England. Although judged undesirable on French soil, in June 1848 Louis Napoleon was elected to the assembly in five departments, taking his seat three months later.

The ambitious deputy was a dreadful public speaker but worked hard to win the conservatives' backing. He harangued crowds and grew closer to the army, which was feeling nostalgic for the Empire. In December 1848 he was elected president with a five-million vote lead over his rivals. On 2 December 1851 Louis Napoleon staged a coup d'Etat, approved by plebiscite on the 20th and 21st. Having amended the constitution beforehand, he became president for 10 years and concentrated all power in his hands. He began a series of forays into the French provinces in order to prepare public opinion for the plebiscite on 21 and 22 November 1852, which proclaimed him emperor. He became Napoleon III on 2 December 1852. Like Napoleon I, he wanted to join the small circle of European dynasties, marrying a Spanish aristocrat, Eugénie Marie de Montijo, on 30 January 1853. From 1852 to 1860, Napoleon III held absolute power on the basis of universal suffrage, which always gave him overwhelming majorities but whose orientation was guided by the mechanism of the "official candidacy". The regime's pillars of support were the old Orleanist bourgeoisie, Catholics and business circles. Political life stagnated and a sense of oppression came over the whole country: the legitimist opposition remained silent, observing the Count of Chambord's instructions to abstain; the republican opposition was decapitated; civil servants were forced to swear a loyalty oath to the emperor; the prefects had nearly unlimited power; the press was gagged by censorship, the high price of stamps and the system of "warnings"; and literature met with a similar fate. But it was also a gilded age of pomp and lavish splendour. Offenbach was the toast of Paris and seaside resorts became fashionable. Haussmann, the prefect of Paris from 1853 to 1869, reshaped the city's face: the result remains the symbol of the economic upsurge during this period. France entered the industrial age: big banks sprang up (Crédit foncier and the Pereire brothers' Crédit mobilier in 1852, Crédit industriel et commercial in 1859, etc.); transport developed (3,100km of railroad tracks in 1851, 17,000 by the end of the Empire); and department stores opened (Le Bon Marché, Le Louvre, Le Printemps, La Samaritaine). Napoleon III's bargaining skills at the Congress of Paris put an end to the Crimean War (1854-1856), boosting his international prestige. He intervened in the creation of the kingdom of Romania and took an active part in Italy's unification, in exchange for which France annexed Nice and Savoy. His Italian policy cost him support among Catholics, who defended the pope's temporal power. Orsini's assassination attempt (14 January 1858) did not damage the Empire but symbolised the conservatives' discontent and enabled the emperor to tighten his grip on power: the general security act of 19 February 1858 allowed him to intern or deport political prisoners without trial.

With conservative support waning, from 1860 to 1870 Napoleon III turned to the liberals. The decree of 24 November 1860 gave the legislature more independence and power of initiative and heralded the return to public life of the republicans, who demanded the repeal of the general security act, restoration of freedom of the press and assembly, and won 32 seats in the 1863 elections. The government bowed: the anticlerical professor Victor Duruy was named education minister (1863-1869), the right to strike and assemble was granted in April 1864, the independence of the press was restored in May 1868, etc. But Napoleon III kept exclusive control of foreign policy and started building an empire, which eventually alarmed the other powers. During the Mexico expedition (1861-1867) he tried to create a great Latin, Catholic empire in Central America in order to curry favour with the Vatican. It came to a tragic end with the execution of the emperor of Mexico, Maximilian von Habsburg. During the Battle of Camerone on 30 April 1863, the three officers and 62 foreign legionnaires of Captain Danjou's company held off 2,000 Mexicans for a whole day; the date has become the Foreign Legion's anniversary. Napoleon III also completed the conquest of Algeria, tightened France's colonial grip on New Caledonia and Senegal, annexed Obock (Red Sea), posed as the defender of Syria's Christians, encouraged the building of the Suez Canal (1859-1869), intervened in China alongside England (1860) and took possession of Cochinchina (1863). In Europe, the Emperor of the French chose a more ambiguous policy, pursuing his goal of weakening Austria. He contributed to the formation of Italy and in October 1865 backed Prussian chancellor Bismarck's push to create a German State during their meeting in Biarritz, trying to negotiate the annexation of land on the other side of the Rhine.

It was not until Prussia's stunning defeat of Austria at Sadowa (3 July 1866) that Napoleon III became aware of the threat from that country and gave his foreign policy a new thrust. He began reorganising the army with the 1867-1868 Niel reform and helped Pius IX in Rome in order to win the backing of French Catholics and Orleanists. In the 1869 elections the republicans increased their ranks in the Assembly: Emile Ollivier joined the government in January 1870. The Empire became parliamentary. Abroad, French policy annoyed Italy and Prussia, which became closer as Bismarck discredited France and Europe. A Hohenzollern filled the vacant Spanish throne, threatening France with encirclement. Bismarck used the hostility caused by France's demands to complete Germany's unification. In the "Ems dispatch" the Iron Chancellor changed the report on the meeting between Benedetti and the Hohenzollerns in such as way as to leave Napoleon III with no other choice but to declare war, which he did on 19 July 1870. Prussian troops dealt the Empire a death blow, capturing Froeschwiller, Forbach and Rezonville-Gravelotte in the first half of August and surrounding Bazaine in Metz. Napoleon III surrendered in Sedan on 2 September, narrowly escaping the firing squad. Gambetta announced the fall of the empire at the Bourbon Palace. On 4 September the Republic was proclaimed at the Paris city hall. Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was brought to Wilhelmshöhe, Hesse in captivity. Released shortly thereafter, he joined Eugénie de Montijo at Camden Place in Chislehurst, Kent. Like his uncle, he died of disease in exile (of progressive fiber dysplasia).

Sylvain Eugène Raynal was born on the 3rd March 1867 into a protestant family of artisans from Bordeaux, from whom he inherited his work ethic and deep patriotism. He enrolled at the school of Saint-Maixent, after an education at the high school in Angoulême, which he left with the same (thirteenth) grade as when he arrived. He then went on to serve in a garrison. Posted to headquarters in Paris, he served under Guillaumat and was then posted to Algeria with the 7th regiment of tirailleurs in Constantine, where he learned that France had entered into the war in the summer of 1914. He was wounded in the shoulder by a machine gun bullet in September 1914 and following the bombardment of his command post in the December he spent ten months in hospital before returning to action on the 1st October 1915. At the end of 1915, the German offensive focussed on the Verdun sector under the command of the Kronprinz, the oldest son of the Kaiser. A 300 day long stand-off followed, which would give birth to a contemporary military movement: Bois des Caures, Froideterre, Mort-Homme, Douaumont, Fleury, etc. and Vaux. On the 4th March 1916, German High Command gave the order to scale down the deadlock at Verdun and push on to Paris.

An advanced outpost, the Fort de Vaux was defended by the 300 remaining men of the 142nd infantry regiment commanded by Raynal of the 96th R.I. He had volunteered to serve at Verdun, despite just finishing his convalescence after sustaining shrapnel wounds, which earned him a promotion to Officer of the Légion d'honneur. Between the 2nd and 7th June 1916 Commander Sylvain Eugène Raynal held out with his men against the German attacks of the 39th infantry regiment. "Heroism is sometimes born from the most humble background" (Fleuriot de Langle, in Le Ruban Rouge (The Red Ribbon))... Completely cut off, on the 4th June he sent his last carrier pigeon, "Vaillant" (registration number 787-15) carrying the following message: "We are still holding out, but are subject to attacks of gas and highly dangerous fumes; it is urgent that we get out of here. Please send us a visual signal via Souville, as they are not responding to our calls. This is my last pigeon. Raynal." Having received no reply, with no drinking water remaining and unable to see how their position could be relieved by reinforcements, the commander and his men finally surrendered. Brought before the Kronprinz, he held out a bayonet belonging to an ordinary soldier to the crown prince, as his sword could not be found in the ruins of the fort, saying to him: "Prince, this weapon is worth an officer's sword". The Prince would inform him, following the interception of a message from the French High Command, that he had been awarded the red cravat of the Légion d'Honneur., Having accomplished its mission, his messenger was to receive the award of the ring of honour - the Post Office Museum in Paris still has its body to this day. As a prisoner Raynal was detained in Mayence from the 11th June 1916 until November 1917 and then for 3 months in Stressburg on the Polish border in Eastern Prussia and finally in Interlaken in Switzerland from the 30th March 1918 until his release on the 4th November. After the war Sylvain Eugène Raynal retired to 36 rue Denfert-Rochereau in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine département) where he would live until his death on the 13th January 1939. A plaque was mounted there in 1966 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Verdun.

Marshal of France (Versailles, 13th February 1811 - Madrid, 23rd September 1888)

François Achille Bazaine was the son of Pierre Dominique and Marie Madeleine Josèphe, known as Mélanie Vasseur. He enlisted in the army in 1831, following his failure in the competition for entry to the Ecole Polytechnique. He served in the Foreign legion in Algeria and then, from 1835 to 1838, fought in Spain against the Carlists, before returning to Algeria where he was in charge of the district of Tlemcen. He became Colonel of the Legion in 1850. Bazaine distinguished himself during the Crimean War. His bravery earned him promotion to the rank of Division General. He commanded French troops during the Kinburln expedition in 1859, was wounded at Melgrano, and had a sizeable role in the Battle of Solferino, for which he would be promoted to the dignity of the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur. A member of the contingent of legionnaires in Mexico from 1862 to 1867, he seized Puebla in 1863 and ended up replacing General Foyer at the head of the expeditionary corps. He forced the Mexican President, Benito Juárez, into exile. In recognition for his skills as commander, he rose to Marshal in 1864.

Widowed by the suicide of his wife, in 1865 he remarried a Mexican lady from a rich family close to the deposed president, who encouraged him to plot against Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg. Faced with American intervention, the French expeditionary corps was forced to withdraw; Bazaine would remain with his men until the evacuation to Vera Cruz was complete in 1867. Although on his return to France he was out of favour with Napoleon III, in 1869 his great popularity secured him the command of the Imperial Guard and in 1870 that of the third Army of the Rhine. The superiority in numbers of the German army, which was better equipped and trained, quickly overcame the Imperial Army. Following the defeat at Spicheren, Bazaine decided to maintain a strategic position. His colonial experience was, however, ineffectual. Indecisive and anxious, the Marshal let himself become surrounded in Metz (18th August) by Constantin von Alvensleben, who launched two corps of troops in an attack on the area, lasting two days. The requested reinforcements were slow to arrive. Torn between his duty to obey his hierarchy and constantly at variance with decisions linked to a power in which he no longer believed, and going along with the force that had come to "liberate France from herself", Bazaine decided to wait for Marshal Mac-Mahon's army from Châlons. Learning of the surrender of Napoleon III at Sedan (2nd September), he tried to act as mediator for France, wasting time in pursuit of this goal negotiating with Empress Eugénie, before finally being forced into an unconditional surrender on the 27th October 1870. The Germans took some 140,000 men prisoner from the Army of the Rhine.

In 1873, following the investigation of his case by Séré de Rivière, he was tried by a war council presided over by the Duke of Aumale, given a dishonourable discharge and sentenced to death. Pardoned by Mac-Mahon, who was then President of the Republic, he was sent to prison for twenty years on the island of Sainte-Marguerite, from where he escaped on the night of the 9th to 10th August 1874. He then went to Spain and settled in Madrid where he earned the respect of the government of Allfonse XII. He made the most of the last years of his life writing Épisodes de la guerre de 1870 et blocus de Metz (Events from the war of 1870 and the siege of Metz) (1883), a work justifying his standpoint.

On the 30th August 1941 Parisians were to learn through the posting on walls of a yellow notice with a black border that the previous day, " Henri Louis Honoré, Count d'Estiennes d'Orves, a French citizen, born on the 5th June 1901 in Verrières " and sentenced to death for spying by the German court, had been executed by firing squad along with Maurice Barlier and Jan Doornik. D'Estienne d'Orves came from a long line of nobility: from an old family of Provencal origin, the d'Estiennes, on his paternal side and the Vilmorins on his maternal side, both legitimist families attracted by social Christianity. Study and leisure interests in equal measure filled a happy childhood: he passed his Baccalaureate in 1917 and prepared for Polytechnic in 1921, following time travelling in France and Europe. On leaving Polytechnic in August 1923, where his fellow students described him as an affable man with an enquiring and spiritual mind, he decided to serve in the Navy. In October 1923, he was a trainee on board the Jeanne d'Arc. Subsequent departures would take him to new horizons: from Brazil to China and from Morocco to Bali, each port of call was the opportunity to learn about and to try to understand the people and their culture.

In 1929, he married Eliane de Lorgeril, herself a descendant of Breton nobility. Five children would be born from this union. 1939: War broke out. Lieutenant of Vessel d'Estienne d'Orves found himself posted to the Duquesne onto the general staff of X Force who, under the orders of Admiral Godfroy, were to strengthen the British fleet of Admiral Cunningham in the eastern Mediterranean. The Armistice took place whilst the French were in Alexandria: a tacit agreement between the French and British admirals had avoided any confrontation between the former allies, but the French ships were immobilised. This predictable period of inactivity and the realisation that he could enjoy a certain amount of freedom on manoeuvres would lead d'Estienne d'Orves to pursue a career in action. This decision was a great wrench: he knew he would have to leave his family and his homeland far behind; his background, education and even his military status should have encouraged him to follow the path taken by most of his friends. However, he would write, "By continuing the fight, I thought I was acting in accordance with our traditions". And, under the pseudonym of Château vieux (from the name of one of his ancestors), he published a press release announcing the creation of the 1st Marine Group.

At the beginning of July 1940, d'Estienne d'Orves offered his services to General Legentilhomme, the commander of French troops in Djibouti, who announced his intention to ignore the Armistice, engaging the colony with him. With four other officers and marines, he reached Suez where he met Colonel de Larminat who had just gone over to the Free French. On the 23rd July, he disembarked from the Antenor in Aden to learn that Legentilhomme's project had failed. So D'Estienne d'Orves decided to go to Great Britain where French vessels were awaiting crews. Embarking on the 2nd August 1940 aboard an armed cargo ship, the Jehangir, d'Estienne d'Orves and his companions arrived in London at the end of September on board an ocean liner, the Arundel Castle, following an eventful journey along the African coast. He would never have the satisfaction of going back to sea in command on the bridge: the rearmament of the ships was in fact very slow and, in addition, he proved to be one of only a few officers of the Free French Naval Forces to have attended military college. On the 1st October 1940, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and was thus appointed to the 2nd bureau at general headquarters. The vital task of the information department of the Free French was to concentrate on the occupied country: to discover the movement of enemy troops, the location of aerodromes and the positions of batteries etc. Several missions had already been sent to the French coast with this objective. Having become the assistant to Colonel Passy, the head of the B.C.R.A, d'Estienne d'Orves laid the foundations for a network known as "Nemrod". On the 6th September 1940, Maurice Barlier was the first agent to reach France; Jan Doornick was to follow on the 1st October.

But d'Estienne d'Orves soon wanted to be on hand himself in order to coordinate the action of his men, establish vital contacts and recruit other agents. That was when he took over the department, Passy having been assigned temporarily to other duties. Was it wise to send the head of the secret service into already occupied France? Even Passy doubted deep down that this fundamentally straightforward man, with his confident nature, was suited to clandestine work. But General de Gaulle agreed: On the 21st December 1940, the trawler "Marie-Louise" left Newlyn, in Cornwall, with d'Estienne d'Orves - now "Jean-Pierre" - and Alfred Geissler, a young radio operator from the Alsace known as "Marty", onboard. They arrived the same evening not far from the Pointe du Raz, to be accommodated in Chantenay, near Nantes. Contact was made with members of "Nemrod" in Lorient and Nantes. On the 25th December, the first radio link between occupied France and London was established. Barlier's mission was to prospect in the Bordeaux region, with d'Estienne d'Orves taking care of the North and the Paris area. On the 27th December the latter was in Paris, where he met pioneers of the Résistance movement. From Brittany "Marty" regularly sent important messages back to London. However, he strangely proved to be both a drinker and a gossip. On returning from Nantes on the 19th January 1941, "Jean-Pierre" decided to bring him back with him to England. But "Marty", the son of a pro-Nazi Alsatian and himself a Germanophile, had that very day already made contact with the German counter-espionage service, providing the names of the 34 members of the network. Indeed, arrests were to follow - d' Estienne d'Orves was arrested during the night of the 21st to the 22nd January - whilst "Marty" sent false messages to London until the February. The prisoners were successively transferred to Nantes - where they were subjected to their first interrogations - to Angers, Paris and Berlin, before being incarcerated once more in Paris on the 26th February at the Cherche-Midi prison. On the 13th May 1941 his trial began, as did that of 26 of his companions. It would last 12 days. D'Estienne d'Orves covered for his fellow prisoners. The military judges would pronounce 9 death sentences and other prison sentences, whilst, remarkably, also paying tribute to the enemy. Appeals were lodged. The suspended sentence given to d'Estienne d'Orves in particular has been explained in different ways: some see it as the military commander in France, Von Stülpnagel's wish to wait for a spectacular opportunity to dampen spirits; others remember that the conviction stirred up strong feelings in the navy, in London and also in Vichy, to the point where Admiral Darlan intervened with the German authorities.

In Cherche-Midi and then in Fresnes prison, d'Estienne d'Orves read, meditated, prayed, wrote commentaries on the great literary classics and kept up the morale of his fellow prisoners. Above all, he wrote. His diary is a testimony, almost in the sixth religious sense of the term: he tells his nearest and dearest about his childhood, giving the example of a Christian and a soldier. Periods of hope and disappointment followed as the days passed. His lawyer, Oberleutnant Mörner, seemed confident. On the 21st August 1941 Midshipman Moser of the Kriegsmarine was killed in Paris in the Barbès-Rochechouart underground station. On the 22nd, General Schaumburg, commander of "Gross Paris", signed the order that would now turn the arrested Frenchmen into hostages. At the same time, the military commander in France, Von Stülpnagel, probably used the opportunity to make an example out of those prisoners already sentenced to death by executing them. On the 28th August 1941, d'Estienne d'Orves wrote to his sister about France, "I am dying (...) for her full freedom and hope that my sacrifice will be of some use to her".

"May nobody seek vengeance for me. I only wish for peace in the newfound greatness of France. Make sure to tell everyone that I am dying for her and for her full freedom and hope that my sacrifice will be of some use to her. I embrace you all with my everlasting tenderness. Honoré"

The following day, d'Estienne d'Orves, Barlier and Doornik - their 6 companions had been pardoned - were led to the fort at Mont-Valérien. It was a sunny morning. In front of the execution post, the marine officer remained steadfast, publicly pardoning his judges. He had written: "Don't hate anyone because of me - everyone has done his duty for his own country. Learn instead to recognise and better understand the character of France's neighbouring people." At 6.30 am the three men were shot. D'Estienne d'Orves valued highly the duty to obey: However, he chose to disobey his superior officers in the name of an ideal, whereas he could easily have found a position in Marshall Pétain's France. But he could never consider that, convinced that a battle is never really lost whilst the possibility of free action exists. On the 11th March 1943, Aragon published his poem "La Rose et le Réséda" which tells of the common battle of "he who believed in Heaven and he who did not believe". D'Estienne d'Orves was the former.

Théodose "Tom" Morel

Théodose Morel was born on 1 August 1915 in Lyon. His father came from a long line of silk manufacturers from Lyon while his mother descended from officers and lawyers from Savoy.

After receiving his primary and secondary schooling from Jesuit Fathers, he chose to follow a career in arms and prepared, from 1933 to 1935, the competitive entrance exam for the Special Military School (ESM) in Saint-Cyr at Sainte Geneviève School in Versailles. Admitted into the ESM in 1935 (Lyautey year), his results two years’ later allowed him to choose his posting: the 27th Battalion of Alpine Hunters (27th BCA), in Annecy, where he arrived on 1 October 1937, the day of his appointment to the rank of sub-lieutenant.

Trained as a scout/skier in Chamonix, Théodose Morel, who married Marie-Germaine Lamy in November 1938, became an officer and assistant to the commander of the scouts/skier section in Abondance before being promoted to this post himself. In May 1939, his section took Savoy and the Italian border. It was stationed above Val d'Isère. On 21 September he was promoted to the grade of lieutenant and then the 27th BCA left for the Eastern Front, his section, to his great regret, staying behind to defend the borders.

He nonetheless managed to make a difference between 12 and 20 June when faced with Italian Alpine troops; thanks to a smart but risky manoeuvre, he and another hunter managed to take four prisoners during a reconnaissance operation.

Shot in the right arm on 18 June, he continued to support his hunters and consequently was awarded the Military Cross. On 21 and 22 June 1940, called to reinforce his section near Petit Saint-Bernard Pass, he managed to locate the enemy troops which allowed the artillery to launch defensive fire forcing the enemy to retreat. Lieutenant Morel received a second commendation and the Legion of Honour Cross.

He subsequently served in the Armistice Army in Annecy where Commander Vallette d'Osia took command of the 27th BCA while preparing his unit for attack.

In August 1941, Lieutenant Morel was appointed to the post of instructor in Saint-Cyr, transferred to Aix-en-Provence, and it was driven by this spirit of combat that he directed and instructed his students. After the invasion of the southern zone by the Germans in November 1942 and the demobilisation of the Armistice Army, he joined the Haute-Savoie resistance movement and took part in covert operations working undercover at a weaving company. Teaming up with Vallette d'Osia, commander of the Secret Army (AS) of the département, and Captain Anjot of the 27th BCA, he endeavoured to set up the AS for Haute-Savoie, inadvertently helped by the introduction of the Compulsory Work Service (STO) in February 1943. Following Vallette d'Osia’s arrest in September 1943 by the Germans, who had replaced the Italians, then his escape to England, the AS of Haute-Savoie lost its leader. He was replaced by Henri Romans-Petit, chief of the AS of Ain. Morel doubled the army’s activity, while his family narrowly escaped arrest.

By late January 1944, Lieutenant Théodose Morel, alias Tom, received the order from Henri Romans-Petit, commander of the Maquis in Haute-Savoie and the mission, to receive the parachute drops on the plateau in Les Glières at 1,500 metres altitude and 15 kilometres from Annecy. The resistance and sabotage actions were intensified and martial law was declared in the département. Tom then decided to unite 120 resistance fighters in Les Glières. Two companies were formed. From February, over six weeks, the number of clashes multiplied with the Gardes Mobiles de Réserve (mobile reserve groups) surrounding the plateau on which they were stationed. At the end of February, over 300 men formed three companies.

Using the resources at his disposal, Tom energetically organised the defence of the site in Les Glières and instructed his battalion to establish a strong and homogenous unit to fight for liberation. Under his command, the battalion – which adopted the motto vivre libre ou mourir (live free or die) – regrouped battalions from the AS (Secret Army) but also from the Franc-Tireurs et Partisans (literally ‘free shooters and partisans’) and several dozen Spanish Republicans, effectively merging different branches of the Savoy resistance movement.

A first parachute drop of 54 containers supplied the fighters with small arms. On 2 March, he decided to lead an operation against the Hôtel Beau Séjour in Saint Jean de Sixt, where members of the GMR were stationed. Thirty GMR soldiers were captured, a bargaining chip to negotiate the release of Michel Fournier, a student of medicine and nurse for the maquis, arrested in Grand Bornand a few days earlier. But despite the gentlemen’s agreement made with the police intendant Lelong from Annecy, Fournier remained imprisoned.

On 5 March, a second parachute drop was made on Les Glières, supplying 30 containers. To force Lelong into keeping his promise and after receiving precise information, Tom decided to lead, on the night of 9 March 1944, an important operation against the GMR's headquarters based in Entremont, for which he rallied together some 100 men. He saved himself for the main objective: the attack on the Hôtel de France, the headquarters of the police staff. The scouts/skiers section succeeded in penetrating the building following a fierce battle.

At the moment the hunters released their prisoners, Commander Lefèvre, head of the GMR, took out a concealed weapon from his pocket and cowardly shot Tom Morel who fell, hit in the heart, before being killed himself.

Lieutenant Théodose Morel was buried by his comrades, on Plateau des Glières, on 13 March. On 2 May 1944, his body was brought down into the valley. He was later buried at the military cemetery in Morette, today the National Necropolis of Les Glières, in Haute-Savoie.

• Knight of the Legion of Honour
• Companion of the Liberation - decree of 20 November 1944
• Military Cross, 1939-1945 (two commendations)

Source: http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr

Jean Rosenthal was born on 5 September 1906 in Paris' first arrondissement. His father was a gem dealer. He took his secondary education at the Ecole Alsacienne, sat the baccalaureate and obtained a law degree.

In October 1925, he was drafted early into the 1st Group of Aeronautical Workers. Appointed to corporal in June 1926, then sergeant in November, he was released in May 1927.

He then worked with his father at the jeweller’s before setting up on his own in 1935.

Called up in September 1939 as a reserve lieutenant, Jean Rosenthal was assigned to the 8th Air Wing. Demobilised in July 1940, he moved into his family home in Megève.

In December 1942, he decided to escape from France via Spain. He was arrested and jailed for a couple of weeks in Pamplona prison then he made his way via Madrid and Lisbon, finally reaching England on 23 January 1943.

Appointed to lieutenant of the L Force in February 1943, he was sent to Cairo via Freetown and Lagos. He made it to Tripoli and the forces of General Leclerc on 25 March 1943. A tank lieutenant, he was sent on mission to London by General Leclerc in July 1943.

On 1 September 1943, he was incorporated into the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations, commonly referred to as the BCRA, and after a short instruction programme, signed up as a volunteer for a mission in occupied France.

During the night of 21-22 September 1943, as part of the "Musc" mission, he was air dropped into the Junot field at the crossroads of the Departments of Rhône, Ain and Saône-et-Loire with the British colonel Richard Heslop (codename "Xavier") of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Their mission consisted of evaluating the situation of the maquis in Haute-Savoie, their needs in terms of armaments and supplies, the size of their numbers and level of training. They took a tour of the maquis during which time Captain Jean Rosenthal, under the name Cantinier, installed a radio in Megève's gendarmerie.

After being flown back to London on the night of 16-17 October to report back directly to General de Gaulle, Cantinier was immediately entrusted with a second mission. He was now a delegate of Free France and landed in the Jura, in the “Orion” field, near Bletterans, during the night of 18-19 October, with Xavier, the American radio captain Denis O. Johnson, known as Paul, and Elizabeth Reynolds, a courier. Under cover he set up camp in Haute-Savoie. One notable member of his team was his cousin, Micheline Rosenthal, known as Michette, aged 16, who became a courier.

When in the company of the politician Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, he met the politician Chaban-Delmas and more importantly, before the deployment of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior), he negotiated a deal with the FTP Free Shooters and Partisans). In Paris, he met their leader, Charles Tillon, and a gentleman's agreement was concluded. Cantinier was going to be able to dedicate himself to the large-scale manoeuvres in Les Glières.

In early 1944, liaising with the leaders of the various maquis, he led perilous missions, including notably the delicate sabotage operation conducted at the Schmidt-Ross ball-bearing factory in Annecy, which stopped production at the plant for several months. In February he also organised several parachute drops into the maquis in Les Glières.

On 9 March 1944 he was part of the expedition against the GMR’s headquarters in Entremont during which Tom Morel was killed and, after the order to withdraw given to the maquis on 26 March 1944, he started to prepare for the liberation of Haute-Savoie. 

On 3 May, 1944, Jean Rosenthal returned to London to get his orders and was sent back to France for yet another mission. He parachuted in on the night of 7-8 June 1944, landing in Cluny in Saône-et-Loire, along with Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury and Paul Rivière, to assure the liaison between the maquis and the interallied chiefs of staff.

In August 1944, under his command, the maquis leaders in Haute-Savoir liberated the Department, capturing 3,000 prisoners and a big haul of military equipment. On 19 August 1944, he received the surrender of the German forces under the command of General Oberg at the Prefecture of Haute-Savoie, in the company of the Regional FFI Leader Nizier.

In October 1944, Jean Rosenthal was transferred to the General Directorate of Studies and Research (DGER) in Paris where he voluntarily enlisted to serve in the Far East against the Japanese. He left London in April 1945 for Calcutta where he was appointed deputy base chief. Promoted to the rank of battalion chief, he planned the airdrops and obtained brilliant results for his teams of parachutists. After several returns to Paris, he moved back permanently in March 1946 and was demobilised two months later.

From that point on, Jean Rosenthal resumed the work he did prior to the outbreak of war, trading precious stones. He was named President of the World Jewellery Confederation. 

An honorary colonel, he also assumed important responsibilities within the Jewish community, as President of the CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France) and the AUJF (Unified Association of Jews in France).

Jean Rosenthal died on 2 August 1993 in Garaches (Hauts-de-Seine). He is buried at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

• Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour [list]Companion of the Liberation – Decree of 20 November 1944
• Croix de Guerre, 39-45 (six commendations)
• Colonial Medal
• Military Cross (GB)

aka "Bayart"

Born in Rennes on 21 July 1904, Maurice Anjot grew up in a family that held very strong religious and national traditions. That is where he received his sense of duty and the moral qualities that, at a very early age, gave him a maturity and an intelligence that his superiors always admired. He was a robust, lively man. At first contact he seemed cold and reserved, but it quickly became clear that while he did not communicate freely and did not seek to stand out, it was because he lived things intensely within himself with his responsibilities, his ideals and his faith.

He had a brilliant military career. He graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1925 and returned in 1929 as an instructor for six years. His superiors always saw "a rare set of moral, intellectual and physical qualities" in him, making him a well-rounded individual. He gave the impression of an "energetic and thoughtful leader", demonstrating "very sound judgement, common sense, a steady eye and tact". Named captain in 1935, he earned a well-deserved military citation during the fighting on the Aisne and on the Marne. He was assigned to the 27th BCA in Annecy after the Armistice.

He was an elite officer who decided to join the French Résistance in the spring of 1941. Police reports for “anti-governmental activities” give us an idea of the kinds of activities he was involved in during that year. He had multiple contacts with reserve officers to set up secret battalions in the region. “In the spring of 1941,” said a witness questioned during the investigation carried out in the autumn of 1942, “I received a visit from Captain Danjot or Anjot, Master Warrant Officer in the 27th Chasseurs Alpins. He was wearing civilian clothes and had come by car. He introduced himself and gave an overview of the situation in France. After the defeat in 1918, the Germans had set up a secret organisation to develop an army. It was normal for France to do the same, he said... This is how the movement was organised – a battalion similar to the “Chasseur” battalions was to be set up in each arrondissement, with reserves, including about a thousand men to be mobilised by individual convocation.”

His resistance plan could have been particularly effective. At the right time, a veritable reserve army could have come out of nowhere from behind the lines, suddenly expanding the armistice army. The project was all the more daring in that it dated from the beginning of 1941, at a time when most French people were not even thinking about a domestic resistance. The invasion of the “free zone” in November of 1942 put an end to it. Other methods had to be found, but the goal was the same – to reconstitute battalions “for the day when, as Anjot said according to another police report, we’ll have to clean up the country.” The Armée Secrète” was born. Captain Anjot was one of its main agents in the Haute-Savoie department, under the orders of Colonel Vallette d'Osia.

After his superior was arrested, he also led the life of a fugitive. He grew a moustache and sideburns; he became a different man with a different identity. He found a place to stay with friends, then with a priest, then at a farm. He was the same man in the Résistance that he was in the army – a methodical man who obstinately worked to pursue his ideals. He made important contacts himself; he centralised information; he maintained contacts with accomplices and organised underground activities – he alone knew their scope and their utility. At Glières, he did not hesitate to go to the intendant of police, Colonel Lelong, to negotiate. "My life is of little importance,” he said to those who wanted to stop him from taking the risks of such an approach, “if I can save the lives of others.” A few days later, Tom was killed in the fighting at Entremont. An officer was needed to continue his work at all costs, so that Glières would always be Glières. Anjot stepped forward and it seems that the officers on the Plateau were ardently awaiting his arrival.

He wrote a letter to his wife that shows what kind of man he was. "You know how events have turned since you left. Our comrade Morel’s sudden death led to a need for a replacement. If I took on this heavy load, it is because I felt that it was my duty. Don’t think that it wasn’t hard for me to take this decision, with you gone; but maybe your very absence enabled me to overcome the family aspect of the question more freely. Many people, with more or less cowardly and dishonest dispositions, currently turn away from their national duty. As an officer, I cannot do that. I hope that you and Claude will bravely accept my decision."

Alongside this spiritual testament, he added a word for his son. "I especially suggest that you always be kind to your mother. Obey her and always be the good little student I so enjoyed working with. I’ll be home as soon as possible and we’ll return to our former life. Don’t forget your daddy in your prayers."

In fact, even as he tried to reassure his family, he understood the situation far too well to be optimistic. Instead of living in the enthusiasm of the Plateau, he personally had to closely follow events day by day; he knew the threats that were building up. He didn’t expect to come back down; he made that clear to a friend with whom he spent the last evening before he took up his new command position. Forever methodical, he drew up plans with him for concerted action in case the situation didn’t change too quickly.

He went up to Glières on 18 March. It was quite an expedition to reach the Plateau through the roadblocks. He carried with him the banner of the company he had commanded at Kehl Bridge, to fly it symbolically over Glières. He also brought his Chasseur Alpin battle dress jacket with him: "If I must die”, he said, “I want to die Anjot”. That is why his moustache and sideburns had disappeared when he arrived.

Events unfolded too quickly for him to show his full worth. During the week that the Plateau was able to hold out, he just had time to move into his new command post and to hastily reinforce the defences. The enemy now had the initiative. Anjot had the great idea to save their honour by saving as many lives as possible – he was concerned for the more than four hundred young men who had inspired him to come and take on this dire duty. After proudly refusing to negotiate with the militiamen, he did everything he could to fend off the imminent attack. In the evening of 26 March, when his defences had been irreparably breached, he ordered an evacuation, giving each leader detailed instructions for his retreat. He headed out with a large column into the Gorge d'Ablon. He had reached the village of Nâves, with Lieutenant Lambert Dancet and Vitipon, when a German roadblock opened fire on their little group and on the Spaniards following them. They fought back but soon fell. Anjot was shot down in a hail of machinegun fire. P. G.

The son of a railway agent, Henri Petit was born on 13 February 1897 at Firminy, in the Loire department.

He studied at the lycée in Saint Etienne and, in 1915, signed up for the duration of the war in the 13^th Light Cavalry Battalion. He was promoted to the rank of Corporal and then Sergeant, and received an Order of the Army citation and the Légion d'Honneur. Admitted to Saint-Cyr military school in 1918 as part of the reserves, he graduated an aspirant. Transferred to Aviation, he joined the B.R.127 squadron, assigned to daytime bombing. He was named Second Lieutenant before being discharged.

He went back to school in Lyon, earning a “licence” degree in law and then worked in public relations and advertising for publishing houses. In 1928, he founded the Stefa advertising agency in Saint Etienne.

As a reserve aviation captain, he was called up in August of 1939 and commanded the air bases at Cannes and Nice. He did not accept the armistice of June 1940 and tried in vain to join General Charles de Gaulle in London. In 1942, Henri Romans-Petit arrived in the Ain department, where he immediately contacted the Resistance. After a few months, in December 1942, he began to organise accommodations for people who refused the Compulsory Work Service (STO).

In June 1943, near Mongriffon, he set up a staff school to train Maquisards, whose numbers in the region were on the rise.

In July 1943, the camps, which did not contain more than 60 men for safety and mobility reasons, were fully structured. At the same time, there were more and more contacts between the Ain Maquis and the Armée Secrète (AS – Secret Army).

In September, under the direction of Romans-Petit, the Maquisards achieved two major feats: they took an “Intendance des Chantiers de Jeunesse” depot in Artemare and the “Intendance de l'Armée” in Bourg-en-Bresse.

In October 1943, Romans-Petit became a military leader in charge of the Armée Secrète (AS – Secret Army) for the Ain department.

On 11 November 1943, he organise the famous parade by part of his troops (250 men) in Oyonnax.

In front of a surprised, and then delighted, crowd, he laid a wreath in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine at the war memorial before leaving town in good order. The Oyonnax parade, filmed by Henri Jaboulay’s son, was widely reported in the underground press and on London radio, and had a major impact on the French population and on the Allies, for whom the armed French resistance was no longer just an abstract idea. At the end of the year, as the number of paramilitary fighters in the Ain department (AS and Maquis) reached 2,000 men, he took control of the underground forces and the AS of the Haute-Savoie department, replacing Commander Vallette d'Osia; he applied the same principles as in the Ain: staff training school, short actions with rapid retreat. He worked in liaison with London through the “Musc” mission, comprising Jean Rosenthal (Cantinier), in charge of Maquis inspections, and Richard Heslop (Xavier) of the British SOE.

To meet the needs of weapons parachute drops, he chose the Plateau des Glières near Annecy where, in January 1944, all the Maquisards in the department came together.

He returned to the Ain after turning command of Les Glières over to “Tom” Morel.

When 5,000 Germans, backed up by aviation, massively attacked the Maquis camps of the Ain, massacring the Maquisards, Romans-Petit immediately went to the site on skis, looking for survivors and slipping past the Germans. He then reorganised the Maquis and met the head of the forces in the Haut-Jura department.

On 6 April 1944, several thousands Wehrmacht soldiers came together in the Ambérieu region and launched an attacked the next day. Colonel Romans-Petit then decided to disperse the Maquis; they nonetheless organised nighttime sabotage operations. The Germans took revenge on the villages of Oyonnax and Saint-Claude, amongst others. On 6 June 1944, informed of the Normandy landing, the Maquisards destroyed the depot in Ambérieu, a major centre of the railway network for the southeast. Fifty-two locomotives and ten machines tools were put out of service.

That same month, Henri Romans-Petit was named a Compagnon de la Libération by decree signed by General de Gaulle.

On 11 July 1944, the Germans attempted a major counter-offensive with some 27,000 men. The 5,000 Maquisards under Colonel Romans-Petit were able to resist despite the violent fighting. In September, the Ain department was liberated.

After the war, Henri Romans-Petit went back to his job in advertising. He was also a corporate officer, notably in electronics. Honorary President of the Veterans of the Ain and Haute-Savoie Maquis and President of the National Association of Air Resistance Fighters (Association nationale des Résistants de l'Air), he was also a member of the LICRA executive committee.

He was the author of several books on the war, notably “Les Obstinés” and, in 1974, “Les Maquis de l'Ain”.

Henri Romans-Petit died on 1 November 1980 in Ceignes, in the Ain department. His funeral ceremony was held at the Val d'Enfer memorial in Cerdon (Ain).

He was buried in the cemetery of Oyonnax.

• Grand Officer of the Légion d'Honneur
• Compagnon de la Libération - decree of 16 June 1944
• Croix de Guerre 14/18
• Croix de Guerre 39/45
• Médaille de la Résistance
• Officer of the Legion of Merit (USA)
• Distinguished Service Order (GB)
• Officer of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)
• Croix de Guerre (Belgium)
• Grand Officer of the Nicham Iftikhar
• Commander of the Order of Merit (Congo)
• Officer of the Order of Merit (Cameroon)

Henri Romans-Petit is the author of:

• Les Obstinés, Editions Janicot, Lille 1945

• L'Appel de l'aventure, Editions Dorian, Saint-Etienne 1947

• Les Maquis de l'Ain, Hachette, Paris 1974

Émile Gilioli was one of the foremost figures of lyrical abstraction in 1950s French sculpture, alongside Brancusi and Arp. He designed the Resistance Memorial on the Glières plateau (Haute-Savoie).

Gilioli was born on 10 June 1911 in Paris, into a family of Italian shoemakers living on the banks of Canal Saint-Martin. He learned the blacksmith’s trade as a child, during holidays spent at the paternal family home near Mantua.

At the end of the First World War, the Gilioli family moved closer to Italy, setting up home in Nice. The young Émile worked in the family business and at the same time took classes in the town’s decorative arts school. In 1928, he was apprenticed to a sculptor, for whom he worked for two years before winning a scholarship for the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He frequented Jean Boucher’s workshop where, like many artists of his generation, he was influenced by the work of Charles Malfray.

Drafted in 1939, he was sent to Grenoble, where he stayed until Liberation. There, he made friends with Andry-Fracy, curator of the museum from 1919 to 1949, who passed on his interest for cubism and introduced him to the painter Closon, a pioneer of French abstraction. It was in Grenoble that he had his first solo exhibition, at Gallery Laforge in 1945.

Returning to Paris, he ran the new abstract School of Paris with Poliakoff and Deyrolle, and exhibited work at Gallery Breteau in 1946. He went on to take part in most French and foreign art events, including the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1947, frequently shows at the Salon de Mai, and the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. The Palais Galliera featured an exhibition of his work in 1968. The same year, he set out his concept of art in La Sculpture (published by Robert Morel).

The simplicity of his art, in which form and material are mutually dependent, inspired by Archaic Greece, Ancient Egyptian statuary and Cubism, earned him many public commissions, particularly in the department of Isère, where he designed the Voreppe Memorial in 1946, the Memorial to the Deportees of Grenoble in 1950, the Chapelle-en-Vercors monument in 1951, the recumbent statue of Vassieux-en-Vercors in 1952, and the Resistance Memorial on the Glières plateau in 1973.

An insatiable worker, Gilioli created Prière et Force, a concrete sculpture which he worked on from 1959 to 1963, La Mendiante (1962), Apparition de la Vierge à Bernadette (1964) and a fountain for Grenoble town hall (1968). His bronze works include his Compositions and Formes, Cadran Solaire, Soleil sur la Montagne, Histoire Crétoise, Divinité and Tête Siennoise. Working with marble, he sculpted Abstraction, L’Homme Oiseau, Chloe, Tabernacle and Forme Abstraite.

His gouache and watercolour paintings reveal a Composition for the Glières monument, from the series Compositions. Also worthy of note are Composition Bleu, Rouge et Noir (collage), Vitesse (steel), Composition Transparente (mesh) and Portrait de Femme (charcoal).

The works of Émile Gilioli are exhibited all over the world, most notably at the: Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, Tate Gallery in London, Musée de Sculpture de Plaen Air de Middelheim in Antwerp, Museu de Arte Moderna in São Paulo, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Bezabel Museum in Jerusalem, Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture in Grenoble, Fine Arts Museum in Ostend, Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art in Luxembourg, Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris, Musée de Sculpture de la Ville de Paris, Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dunkirk, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, Museo dei Bozzetti in Pietrasanta, Kunsthaus in Zurich and Musée Fabre in Montpellier.

One of his workshops, his “attic”, in a building bought by the municipality of Saint Martin de la Cluze in 1997, has remained untouched since his death and is today open to the public.

Sources: Benezit E., Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, vol. 6, 1999; and Ragon M., in: Nouveau dictionnaire de la sculpture moderne, Paris, Hazan, 1970.

To visit

Atelier Gilioli - museum and library 38650 Saint Martin de la Cluze Tel: +33(0)4 38 92 00 96

Find out more on the website Sculpture1940.com

Noël Marie Joseph Edouard de Curières de Castelnau, (24th December 1851: Saint-Affrique, Aveyron - 19th March 1944: Montastruc-la-Conseillère, Haute-Garonne)

Edouard de Castelnau came from an old Catholic monarchist family from the Rouergue. He studied at the Saint-Gabriel Jesuit College (Saint-Affrique), leaving with a Bachelor of Sciences degree before preparing for Saint-Cyr. As a student at St-Cyr, he first saw action in the war of 1870. Graduating in 1869 from the Special Military School (Ecole Spéciale Militaire), he left with the rank of Second Lieutenant on the 14th August 1870 and was posted to the 31st infantry regiment (régiment d'infanterie or RI). Unable to join his unit in time due to the disorganisation of the services behind the front line, he was appointed to the 36th Foot Regiment of General d'Aurelles de Paladine's Loire army on the 2nd October; he was promoted to Captain twelve years later. Edouard de Castelnau fought at Tusey, Sainte-Maxime, Chambord, Gué-du-Loir and le Mans. In 1871, he lived in Versailles and took part in the repression of the town under the command of Colonel Davout d'Auerstaedt. Demoted to Lieutenant by the grade review commission, he was not promoted back to Captain until 1876.

His long military career then followed a more traditional route, with garrisons in Bourg, Givet, Ham and Laon. He started at the War Academy (Ecole de Guerre) in 1878, where he graduated in 1880 before being transferred to the 59th RI in Toulouse. He was a trainee at the headquarters of the 17th corps and then appointed to that of the 34th division, returning to the 126th RI and the 17th corps in 1888. On the 6th May 1889 he became Head of Battalion, receiving the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1891 and then joining General de Miribel at the premier bureau of general headquarters in Paris in 1893. He became a Lieutenant Colonel on the 10th September 1896 and was promoted to Second in Command and then Commander of the premier bureau, being made an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1899. With the arrival of General André in the War Department, he was removed from the management of the premier bureau. Promoted to Colonel, he left to head the 37th regiment in Nancy between 1900 and 1905. Described as a "Jesuit sympathiser", the army corps served the General as a means of displaying his opinions: during a parade dedicated to the history of the French army, he made his men act out scenes from the Old Regime through to the Republic, without making any differentiation between them. He became the General Michal's High Commander and Superior Commander in the defence of Belfort. He was made Brigade General on the 25th March 1906, commanding the 24th brigade at Sedan and the 7th at Soissons Becoming Division General on the 21st December 1909 - he had once been excluded from the promotions board by General Sarrail, then in charge of the infantry -, he then commanded the 13th division at Chaumont. Recalled to headquarters at Joffre's special request, he was promoted to Deputy First in Command of the General Staff under his command on the 2nd August 1911. That same year he was promoted to Commander of the Legion of Honour. At the end of 1913, he started at the Upper War Council. In 1914, he commanded the 11th Lorraine Army during the Battle of Morhange. Advancing methodically in conjunction with Dubail's first army, he reached the Barouville beacon, beyond Dieuze and the lake district. He saved the town of Nancy by blocking the march of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria using a flanking manoeuvre on the 25th August. On this occasion he made a votive offering to the Virgin Mary: "To Our Lady of Prompt Succour, eternal gratitude. Nisi Dominus custoderit civitatem frustra vigilat qui custodit eam [If the Lord does not protect a city, those who watch over it guard it in vain. (Psalm 118)]", on the 12th September 1914. There then followed a fierce battle which lasted until the 10th September: Castelnau extended his victory in the Marne to the East with that of the trouée de Charmes, which prevented the French armies from being turned to the right, making it possible to regroup. He was then promoted to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (18th September). Then the "race for the sea" began: Castelnau moved his 11th army along the left hand side in order to surround the enemy who were retreating into the Nieuport dunes. He carried on fighting with determination at Roye and then on to Arras.

In June 1915, Castelnau, promoted to Commander of the Central group of armies, led the Champagne offensive of the 25th September 1915: in a few days he took 25,000 prisoners, seized 125 canons and took control over an area of German land several kilometres wide. Following this victory he was promoted to Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (8th October 1915) and became Generalissimo Joffre's Deputy. Castelnau's popularity in public opinion was such that the Lyon Express - similar comments were made in the foreign press, including the Manchester Guardian - made the following comments about his promotion: "It is a promotion that is nothing short of being undeniably deserved, because his loyalty to the Catholic faith has kept him away from it for a long time. It is well known that under the Masonic denouncing regime of Combes and General André, General de Castelnau was a General who was refused any kind of promotion" (23rd December 1915). His opponent, General Von Kluck would say of him: "the French opponent with whom we instinctively felt the most empathy, because of his great military talent and chivalry, is General de Castelnau. And I would like him to know that". In February 1916, following a trip to Thessaloniki to study the potential organisation of the place, his recommendations for the Meuse defence had consequences for the Battle of Verdun and meant that right bank was not lost to the enemy. General de Castelnau was sent on a liaison mission to Russia on the 18th January 1917. On his return in March, he took command of the Eastern armies and, having been awarded the military medal in September, took part in the great victory offensive of 1918, arriving triumphantly in Colmar and then in Strasbourg. Despite the services he gave to the Nation, he never rose to the rank of Marshal. The Republic remained suspicious of the military following the Dreyfus affaire and his contacts in rightwing traditionalist circles and his militant Catholicism, which would earn him the nickname of the "fighting friar" from Clémenceau, revived the ghost of the law of 1905 - the First World War would claim his three sons! He carried on working beyond retirement age and specially employed, though never taking command, he presided over the national commission for military graves, which was in charge of the large national cemeteries.

In 1919, at the age of sixty eight, he was elected as MP for the Aveyron on the ticket of the Bloc national and was to be highly active in the Chamber's Army Commission. Marginalised because of his extreme rightwing militancy and his confirmed warmongering, he succeeded Barrès in 1923 at the head of the League of Patriots (Ligue des Patriotes). Beaten in the 1924 elections, the following year he founded the National Catholic Federation (Fédération nationale catholique or FNC), a movement encouraged by Pius XI to thwart the Leftwing Coalition's anticlerical project. Well established in the parishes (in less than a year he set up an enormous pyramid organisation comprising between 1.5 and 2 million members) and organising mass demonstrations, most notably in Alsace-Lorraine, in the West and the Massif Central region, the Federation forced Herriot's government to do a U-turn. The FNC, a real breeding ground of retired officers such as Tournès, Margot, Navel, de Reynies, de la Bussières, Picard, de Maitre d'Allerey, Etienne, Amiot, Mazurier and Keller, was also an important pressure group which, in addition to its role as arbitrator during elections, kept its eye on parliamentary life, not hesitating to publish in the media a list of MPs who had voted for or against such and such a government bill, especially in those areas that were in keeping with its values, such as education, the family and religious freedom and suggesting others through the intermediary of its representatives in the Chamber. In addition, General de Castelnau had access to a soap-box, the Paris Echo, an influential rightwing newspaper in which he fought anticlericalism as well as the policy of Franco-German reconciliation championed by Briand. Castelnau's political influence diminished during the 1930's. Anticlericalism no longer dominated thoughts, Catholicism found other battle grounds and the nationalist values of the Federation receded in the face of the reactionary movements of the Leagues and pro-fascist movements. In 1940, in retirement at his home in the Hérault, although in favour of the national values of the Revolution, he showed deep mistrust towards Pétain and expressed disapproval of the armistice. He died at the château de Lasserre in Montastruc-la-Conseillère in 1944. He was buried in the new family vault in Montastruc. Although forgotten by history, General Edouard de Castelnau was a key public figure at the time. A man of the world and well-read, he was the Maintainer of the Toulouse Floral Games, a member of the Institute, founding member of the Mutual Aid Association of the French Nobility and member of the Aveyron Sciences, Arts and Letters society. His courage and mastery of the military art elevated him to the International Dignities of the War Cross, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, of Saint Gregory the Great, of the White Eagle, of Saint Stanislas and Saint Anne of Russia, of Saint Alexander Nevski, of the Order of Victoria of England, of the cavalier of the Virtuti militari of Poland and of the Grand Cross of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.