Massacre in Grenoble during WWII
The Grenoble's Saint-Bartholomew's (a term used by historian François Boulet in his book was a series of assassinations and arrests of the main leaders of Grenoble's resistance to German occupation, between November 25 and 30, 1943. It was carried out by a team of collaborationists under the orders of Doriot and the Lyon PPF led by Francis André. It was named after the Protestant massacre of 1572.
During the Second World War, while the north of France had been occupied by German troops since June 1940, the southern or free zone was also invaded in November 1942, except for the Alps region, which found itself under a much less violent Italian occupation. This situation attracted many persecuted refugees and academics to Grenoble. The city's proximity to imposing mountain ranges and the ease with which Maquis fighters could hide made it an ideal location for the development of resistance to the occupying forces. But on September 8, 1943, the French Alps were in turn invaded by the Germans, who quickly decided to eliminate this resistance in a vast operation.
In addition to five people who were deported but returned alive, Grenoble's Saint-Bartholomew's toll was eleven murders and eight deaths during deportation, with the future Prefect of Isère, Albert Reynier, narrowly avoiding capture.
Context.
During the Second World War, Grenoble was located in the free zone until November 1942. During this period, the landing of Allied troops in North Africa led to the invasion of most of the free zone by German troops, and the occupation by the Italian army of an area east of the Rhône valley.
The city of Grenoble, with its population then reaching the 100,000 mark, was occupied on November 11, 1942, by the 8,000 men of the 5th Italian Alpine Division, known as the Pusteria, under the command of General Maurizio Lazzaro De Castiglioni. Their area of responsibility stretched from Lake Geneva to the Durance. This period of Italian occupation was nevertheless a relatively safe one in Grenoble, particularly for persecuted Jews from the occupied zone such as the future historian Marc Ferro, but also for academics and scientists such as the future Nobel Prize winner Louis Néel, who saw the city as a land of asylum. But on September 8, 1943, the territories occupied by the Italians were in turn controlled by the Germans following the signing of the Armistice of Cassibile between Italy and the Allies. The arrival of German troops in Grenoble in September 1943 led to a much more violent occupation.
At the same time, from 1940 onwards, people from different social backgrounds, with no relation to each other, joined the resistance and gradually organized themselves. Young men who had refused Compulsory Work Service arrived in Grenoble in increasing numbers, and joined the various Maquis in the surrounding mountain ranges. In December 1942, one of the first Maquis in France was set up in the Vercors Massif overlooking the city. On the BBC's radio waves, Grenoble became the "capital of the Maquis."
German occupation.
On the morning of September 9, 1943, the German occupation led to the installation of the 157th reserve division of the "Wehrmacht", commanded by General Karl Pflaum. Under his command, the 15,000 troops moved into the Alpine departments, driving out the Italian soldiers. Installed at the Wehrmacht headquarters on Place Pasteur in the (Student's House), his first priority was to house repressive bodies such as the secret state police, the Geheim Staatspolizei, better known as the Gestapo. Then, on September 29, 1943, the SD ("Sicherheitsdiens"t), the security service responsible for espionage in Lyon, seconded its intervention commando ("Einsatzkommando") to Grenoble, under the command of SS Paul Heimann. For this purpose, a large nine-storey building was requisitioned at 28, Av. Berriat. In this highly tense context, the first victim of the German occupiers soon fell: 32-year-old engineer André Abry was shot dead on October 6 in the street of Palanka, as he had just placed his briefcase on the sidewalk in order to open his garage door.
Twenty years later, Lucienne Gosse, wife of Dean René Gosse, wrote of this period: "The Germans who arrived in Grenoble in September 1943 were no longer the triumphant victors of June 1940. They were afraid of the Alpine zone, where BBC broadcasts were announcing the presence of tens of thousands of young men ready for combat, and giving Grenoble the title of maquis capital. The Germans called this region Little Russia, and as they feared Great Russia even more, the fear of being sent to the Eastern Front aroused their repressive zeal; terror reigned there right up to the end of their occupation."
From December 1943 onwards, the Grenoble garrison grew in importance and strength. This was reflected in the relocation of the headquarters of the Reich Security Police, the Sipo-SD ("Sicherheitspolizei"), in April 1944 to a hotel on Boulevard Maréchal-Pétain, and the replacement of Chief Heimann by SS-Hauptsturmführer Hartung.
Resistance activities in November 1943.
Tension between the population and the occupying forces became increasingly tense in November. A few days earlier, in October, the Milice headquarters on Square Victor-Hugo had just been machine-gunned and the Germans saw their immediate collaborators fall one after the other to Resistance fighters' bullets. Stemming from the Combat resistance movement, the action of the "groupes francs", armed action groups made up of the most dynamic and mobile men, constituting the armed wing in charge of immediate action, exerted a real undermining effect on the Germans' morale. At their head in Isère was Commandant Louis Nal.
The people of Dauphiné were called to commemorate November 11, 1943 at the Port-de-France war memorial on the right side of the Isère, but as they approached the Port-de-France bridge, the Mobile Guard prevented the demonstrators from crossing and pushed them back. Chanting "La Marseillaise", the 1,500 demonstrators then decided to head for the Blue Devils monument in the Paul-Mistral Park. Once there, they barely had time to place a bouquet before they were surrounded by German forces, and 600 of them were arrested. Parked in Pasteur Square, visible from General Karl Pflaum's office, the women and children under 16 were released after a few hours. However, 369 were held at the Bonne barracks, to be deported two months later to concentration camps. Of the 369 young men under the age of 30 deported to Buchenwald after two months in Compiègne, only 102 survived at war's end.
A report dated November 11, 1943, from the commander of the Isère gendarmerie, who was present at the arrival of the demonstration, states that there were "around 1,500 demonstrators", and adds: "[The Germans] deployed in skirmishers and ran with automatic weapons and revolvers pointed at the crowd. Fortunately, the G.M.R. and Gendarmes, who were busy pushing the crowd towards the town, found themselves placed between the Germans and the civilians, which prevented the use of fire that was about to occur. (...) The Commissaire Central de Police, the Major of the G.M.R., the Major of the Guard and the Major of the Compagnie de Gendarmerie then rushed to the German soldiers to warn them not to fire. (...) At 11:40 a.m., four heads of department [of the French police authorities, including the author of the report] were taken to the Student House, escorted by German soldiers with their weapons drawn. On arrival, all four were searched and stripped of their weapons. The four department heads were released at 1 p.m. after being warned that they would be held responsible for any further incidents. While the authorities were at the Student House, they found that German troops had maneuvered and surrounded around 5-600 people going off into the adjacent streets, and led them into a wire-wrapped area near a General Staff building. In the afternoon, the women and children were released. The men were taken to the Bonne barracks."
Unrelated to this demonstration, a spectacular attack took place in Grenoble on the night of November 13 to 14, destroying the German ammunition depot located in the north of the city on the artillery polygone with a huge explosion. At around 11 p.m., 150 tonnes of ammunition and 1,000 tonnes of equipment went up in smoke, depriving the German occupiers of precious explosive resources. The blast was heard over fifty kilometers away and incandescent clouds rose higher than the surrounding mountains. This feat was the work of Grenoble resistance fighter Aimé Requet. The operation had already been in preparation for six months, thanks in particular to a warrant officer from Lorraine by the name of Schumacher who, working in the arsenal, drew up the execution plans. Initially scheduled for November 6, the firing was postponed to the 10th, then to the 14th, due to faulty ignition.
Red week.
On November 15, 1943, the Gestapo got together to suppress these resistance movements with a lightning operation, calling in a team of Lyonnais militiamen led by Francis André. Under the direction of SS August Moritz, they received information from the Girousse couple of the Mouvement Franciste, and decided on the details of the operation in retaliation for the death of collaborators in Grenoble.
At 6 p.m. on November 25, the operation began with the simultaneous arrests of Communist Party member Roger Guigue in his wife's hairdressing salon on rue Brocherie, journalist Jean Pain in the Café La Table ronde on Saint-André square and lottery ticket salesman Georges Duron in his wife's flower store on Victor-Hugo square, marking the start of this series of murders. After the interrogation of the three resistance fighters, each was executed in a different part of the town. A leaflet was found on their bodies with the inscription: "This man pays with his life for the death of a national".
On November 26, Dr. Jacques Girard was arrested at 2 p.m. at his home at 60, street Élisée-Chatin, interrogated in a house requisitioned by the killers and executed. Francis André's team, assisted by the local militia, carried out new arrests and executions every hour. Doctor Henri Butterlin was arrested at 3 p.m. at his home at 5, street de Palanka, Alphonse Audinos at 5:30 p.m. at 22, avenue Berriat and Joseph Bernard at 6:30 p.m. at 26, square Vaucanson, All three were executed the same day, and the bodies of two of them were found far from their place of arrest, in Vif for Henri Butterlin and in Claix for Jacques Girard.
At 2 a.m. on November 27, Dr. Gaston Valois was arrested at his home at 5, Palanka Street. The team of killers discovered important documents relating to the Grenoble Resistance. However, the doctor had taken the precaution of cutting the documents in two, giving the second half to his secretary Henri Maubert, who had been hospitalized at the Alpes clinic a few weeks earlier under a false name. Suzanne Ferrandini, Dr. Valois' secretary, was also arrested. During their transfer to Gestapo headquarters, Dr. Valois tried in vain to seize a weapon to commit suicide. Then, at 4:30 a.m., Henri Maubert was arrested at the Alpes clinic, and the militiamen discovered the other half of the documents. The information obtained by the militiamen on November 25 enabled them to set up a trap at the home of a photographer, whose business at 1, Strasbourg Street had become a Resistance mailbox. The couple who ran the store, Marcel and Marcelle Boninn-Arthaud, were arrested there, followed by Edmond Gallet, Raymond Langlet and Anthelme Croibier-Muscat.
At midday, Francis André's team, joined by Grenoblois from the "Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchevisme" (Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism), lunch at the Savoyard tavern on Avenue d'Alsace-Lorraine. Members of the "Paul Vallier" franc group, of which Gustave Estadès is deputy, warned of the arrival of this team of killers, and plan to intervene. Accompanied by a third member of the Resistance, they discreetly observed them at their table, but decided not to shoot them, as the restaurant was crowded and the area very busy. In the afternoon, Francis André's team returned to the trap. A new arrest is made at the photographer's home, of a Jewish man, René Mauss. Worried that Anthelme Croibier-Muscat has been missing since morning, Gustave Estadès decides to go inside and fall into the trap. A few minutes later, Paul Vallier enters too, but Estadès raises his hands to show him the handcuffs. Paul Vallier immediately shoots through his jacket, wounding a member of the team of killers, and manages to escape.