The Resistence Movement in WWII

In June 1944, the word went out to the Resistance movement in a little village about 10 minutes from Patrick's home town named Corcieux, to create a distraction for the Germans. The Resistance throughout the Vosges, called the Maquis here, took their orders seriously and set to work. They were so effective that the German army, believing that something big must be about to happen in the Vosges, left a good part of their divisions here instead of sending them to the beaches at Normandy--perhaps helping insure the success of the Allied invasion. The Maquis were so effective that the German army, infuriated by what the Maquis did, in retaliation, shot hundreds of people, often while families watched, and burned entire towns to the ground. The first picture here is the monument at the location where the Maquis of Corcieux were lined up and shot. Corcieux was totally destroyed by the Germans --there isn't a building in the town that is left from before the war. We spoke with a woman this morning whose father was in a group of men who watched the executions, fully believing his group was next. (For whatever reason, the observers were spared.)

This second picture is on top of a mountain at La Bresse, another city that was a major headquarters for the Maquis in the Vosges Mountains and that was totally destroyed by the Germans in retaliation. This is another site of executions by the German army. The Maquis were meeting here in secret, but someone told the Germans, and the SS snuck up on them, surrounded them, and executed all they found there. It was a foggy night, and some were able to hide in the brush and were spared. The monument says "Never forget that on this spot, the Black Drop Maquis and the Piquante Pierre Maquis, on the 16th, 20th, and 21st September 1944, and soldiers from the 4th Battalion of the French Interior Forces, died for freedom. Honor their memory and keep it sacred." (An interesting note: listed on the monument is a man whose home town is listed as New York. He was listed as one of the French soldiers. Also, as a point of explanation, the battalions referred to here were soldiers fighting for the non-occupied French Army, led by DeGaulle in England. Because they fought more in hiding than in the open, there was a fine line between official sodiers and maquis.)

The last picture is Patrick and Ren at the site in La Bresse. Today we visited with Camille and Lucette Lievaux, a couple who lived through the war. Camille was a prisoner of war and then after escaping, a Maquis fighter with an amazing story of his own--for another day! Lucette is the one whose father witnessed the executions in Corcieux. She was a teenager, and she said to us this morning, "You can't imagine what the fear is like--to live in fear and have no relief from it for so long."

Patrick's father was deported by the Germans on November 8, 1944, just six days before Granges was liberated by the Americans. He was "requisitionned" by the German army: all men in good health between 16 and 46 years old were told to come work to build up defenses against the Allies who were stuck about three miles away from Granges, waiting for supplies to catch up. Of the men called by the Germans, lmost no one came, so the Germans got mad and rounded up the men and took them prisoner. They were forced to walk in the snow across the mountains more than 30 miles. Patrick's Dad Rene spent almost six months as a prisoner of war, forced to work for the Germans. He was part of a group that was on its way to Dachau, an extermination camp, to be executed, but the allies kept bombing the train tracks, and instead the prisoners were forced to repair tracks until April 1945. There is a memorial on the front of City Hall in Granges that commemorates the deportation.