Malabra massacre – Wikipedia

The Malabra massacre is an episode of the Second World War, the June 10, 1944 , during which fourteen resistance fighters and civilians were killed by German SS in a career north of Limoges.

Resistance to German occupants is important in Limoges and Haute-Vienne during the Second World War and became even more so in 1944. The German repression is particularly active, often helped by the Militia and its intelligence service led in Limoges by Jean Filliol. THE April 6, 1944 , the 2nd division SS Das Reich is withdrawn from the Koursk Front and joins the Montauban region. THE June 8 , she is ordered to position herself in the Limoges sector, where his commander, General Heinz Lammerdy settled on the 9th at Central Hôtel . The passage of the division leads to many massacres, including those of Argenton-sur-Creuse, Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane.

The June 9, 1944 , a column of the 2 ^{It is} Division SS Das Reich commits to Argenton-sur-Creuse a massacre followed by the taking of more than 150 hostages. The day after June 10 In the morning, the hostages are released, except thirteen of them which are taken by truck at the Kommandantur de Limoges, installed in the district of Cavalerie Marceau. These hostages could have been shot in Argenton but it is likely that the SS wanted, while continuing to frighten the population, use them for hostage executions to come in retaliation following the operations of the Resistance or even as shields humans on the head vehicles of the repression columns ^{[ first ]} .

At the southern exit of Argenton, two hostages manage to jump from the truck and escape. When the eleven others arrive in the afternoon in the Marceau district, the events have accelerated strongly for the SS. The day before at 6 p.m. arrived at the order for the division to join the new Normandy front. A few hours later, the Stümscharführer ^{[ 2 ]} Helmut Kämpfe, boss you 3 ^{It is} Battalion of the regiment The leader , “heroes n ^O 1 of the division “and personal friend of General Lammerding, was taken prisoner by resistance fighters and cannot be found. Another officer, Lieutenant Gerlach, was also arrested; he was able to escape but his driver was shot ^{[ 3 ]} . The SS initiated an action towards Colonel Georges Guingouin to try to recover Kämpfe ^{[ 4 ]} . The railway tracks are everywhere scratchy and the division lacks fuel for its progression to Normandy ^{[ 5 ]} . In this highlighting climate, the hostages of Argenton have become not very useful if not bulky. Barely happened that the SS decide to get rid of it.

At 5.30 p.m., the group of eleven hostages of Argenton, increased by three prisoners in the Marceau district, left in a convoy of three self -commissioning officers ^{[ 6 ]} , commanded by the Hauptcharführer ^{[ 7 ]} Muller. Guided by a Gestapo agent, the convoy arrives at the hamlet of Malabra, in the town of Beaune-les-Mines ^{[ 8 ]} , north of Limoges. The hostages are extracted from vehicles around 6 p.m. and slaughtered in two distinct salvas ^{[ 9 ]} in an isolated career, at a place called Gramagnat .

The June 12 , fourteen bodies are raised to Malabria. Seven are tangled in a large puddle of blood. The other seven are in a shallow hole, covered briefly with earth shoveled. At a place called The Moulin-Pinard , the bodies of two other men are discovered riddled with bullets. They were extracted from the Marceau district then killed on the night of 10 to 11, and cannot be identified ^{[ ten ]} .

Five are soldiers of the first regiment of France, in uniform, rallied to the Resistance and who had taken part the day before with Henri Rognon in a fight against the SS in Argenton-sur-Creuse:

• André Fraysse, born in Paris, 20 years old, 3 ^{It is} battalion of first ^is RF in Auron ^{[ 11 ]} ;
• François Gorgon, corporal, 20 years old ( first ^is battalion, 3 ^{It is} company, white) ^{[ 11 ]} ;
• Guy Gorse, born in Siorac-en-Périgord, 21, ( 3 ^{It is} Battalion, Dun-sur-Auron)
• André Vallet, originally from Allier ( 3 ^{It is} Battalion, Dun-sur-Auron)
• Auguste Wetzel, born in Buethwiller, 20 years old ( first ^is battalion, 3 ^{It is} company, white) buried in the military square of Châlonvillars -70 ^{[ twelfth ]} .

The others are civilians:

• Ernest and Joseph Thimonnier, 18 and 16, college students son of the gendarme Joseph Thimonnier, shot the day before in Argenton ^{[ 13 ]}
• Roger Montagu, born in Angervilliers, 21 years old of Argenton ^{[ 14 ]}
• Raymond Garros, 19, of Argenton
• Ngoc-Tran, 23, from Cochinchina, a passenger of a immobilized train in Argenton-sur-Creuse
• Paul Arnoux, 39, born in Port-au-Prince, residing in Caussens, passenger of the same train
• Three prisoners in the Marceau cavalry district, unidentified.

• The names of the 11 shot from Argenton are engraved on the memorial of June 9 in Argenton-sur-Creuse.
• Those of André Fraysse and François Gorgonne are registered on the Memorial of Resistance in Chasseneuil-en-Bonnieure.
• The name of Guy Gorse is engraved on the war memorial of Siorac-en-Périgord.
• The names of the Thimonnier brothers are registered with that of their father on the commemorative plaque of the Gendarmerie d’Argenton-sur-Creuse.
• The name of Pierre Arnoux is engraved on the memorial of civilian victims of the second world conflict in Caussens.

Malabria career had been the place of previous executions made by the Germans ^{[ 5 ]} . It then served to executions of condemned by the Court of Justice of Haute-Vienne (thus a former GMR and a former police officer September 8, 1944 ^{[ 15 ]} and René Ohl, Alsatian who joined the Germans, the August 19, 1946 ) and by the Limoges Assize Court (thus, Jean Schmitt, sentenced for civilian crime, executed by shooting) ^{[ 16 ]} .

• Jacques From the street , Trafficking and crimes under the occupation , Paris, plural, two thousand and thirteen , 506 p. (ISBN  978-2-818-50326-3 , OCLC  862903182 )
• D ^r André Cotillon, Argenton, June 9, 1944 , a tragic history page , 1994, reissue of Cha, Argenton-sur-Creuse, 2004
• Pierre Brunaud , Argenton-sur-Creuse in war: 1939-1945 , Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, A. Sutton, coll. “Testimonials and stories”, 2008 , 224 p. (ISBN  978-2-849-10711-9 , OCLC  470927288 )

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