It’s puzzling, notes historian Suzel Crouzet, but the story of January 6, 1943 is unknown. “I happened to explain the history of this event to pure Montluçonnais,” she recounts with astonishment.
This Berruyère – who taught six years at the Huriel college – takes advantage of the third edition of the book Montluçon January 6, 1943, the mobilization against the departure of the requisites, which she wrote with Béatrix Thave, to dedicate it on Thursday, January 6, 2022 at the School Bookstore.
Suzel Crouzet and Beatrix Thave in 2014.
The 2014 book compiles and crosses different sources to provide the context of the mobilization, its progress and its consequences. It is enriched with numerous testimonies, which allow you to relive the atmosphere of a heroic day.
Facts. On January 6, 1943, at midday, between two thousand and three thousand people gathered around the Montluçon station while one hundred and forty-three
required must travel by train to work in Germany. There are many workers and women. A police cordon surrounds the surroundings of the station, young people break through the device and the crowd rushes into the courtyard of the station.
“It is an immense Marseillaise which sprang up” “The requisites were already in the wagons when we arrived; it was screaming, which galvanized us. It is a huge Marseillaise which sprang up and thenthe International . And there was that stupid station master (Duguet, a well-known collaborator, ed.)
who said: “We must end this, the train must go”; So there was a stampede, there were women and relatives… The railway workers unhitched the machine… ”recalls Jacques Guérard, aged 17 at the time, quoted in the book.
Mobile reserve groups come to reinforce the local police. They threaten to shoot while the demonstrators throw stones at them. As the train starts up and is stopped again by railway workers, the required are urged to get off, which most end up doing. The crowd ends up dispersing when the Germans descend from the Richemont barracks. “It took courage to lie down on the tracks,” remarks Suzel Crouzet.
Demonstration of January 6, 1943 in Montluçon: the story of a day that changed his life The context.
To satisfy the Germans, the head of government Pierre Laval had instituted a forced relief in September 1942 – before the creation of the Compulsory Labor Service in February 1943. With all its factories, Montluçon was particularly concerned with providing experienced employees.
“We left the office without asking permission” The motivations.
For the authors of the book, the demonstration of January 6, 1943 was both a popular reaction to the forced requisition and an event “wanted and organized by certain groups”. A protest tradition existed in the Montluçon basin.
Suzanne Bidault raconte :
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When I arrived at my work around 2 p.m., in Les Îlets, one of my colleagues said to me: “You know, there is a train leaving for Germany, we have to go.” We left the office without asking permission, which was not without its drawbacks at the time. The results.
The day of January 6, 1943 was followed by a crackdown. About fifty required were caught the same evening and left by train the next day, while thirty to thirty-five refractories were able to escape arrests. A “manhunt” was also organized against those responsible for the demonstration. Among these people is Tilou Bavay, who fled. His father, Louis Bavay, considered a “notorious Communist”, was deported. About fifteen “second rank” demonstrators were arrested and sentenced to terms ranging from one to fifteen days in prison.
Guillaume Bellavoine Dedications.
The historian Suzel Crouzet will sign the book on the events of January 6, 1943, Thursday January 6, 2022, at the School Library, from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Ceremony.
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Sunday January 9, 2022, at 11:30 a.m., wreath laying at the monument near Montluçon station. The Resistance Museum team will then organize a sale of books dedicated to the Second World War at the station.
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