A little over a month ago, Andrée Julien celebrated her 98th birthday at her home in Nîmes. In small groups, of course! Covid obliges. “She always has a good foot, good eye, his grandson, Stéphane Serra, has fun. But she still has to take care of herself a bit. ” It must be said that until last year, Andrée intervened in schools in the Gard to tell her story, that of a young resistance member, aged 19, who, during the Second World War, was imprisoned and then deported. in concentration camps, where she experienced barbarism and human negation.
Deported to Ravensbruck
Andrée was born in 1923, in Arles, in a family of railway workers. His father, Fernand Julien, joined the Communist Party in 1936, and Sunday morning sells Humanity with his comrades from the SNCF depot in Nîmes. The Spanish Civil War and the massive arrival of refugees in Nîmes deeply marked the young girl who, very early on, was bathed in an anti-fascist left-wing atmosphere.
From the start of the Second World War, part of the family came into resistance, in particular his brother Henri; and the house on rue Salomon-Reinach quickly served as a letterbox. “His mother Madeleine welcomed young resistance fighters, liaison officers, among whom, among others, Paul Courtieu, Camille Elzière or even Jean Burles.”
In November 1941, during a police search of the family home, Andrée, then aged 18, succeeded in hiding the mimeograph and all the material used to print leaflets for the resistance. Liaison agent, Andrée becomes Annick at the head of a triangle formed by Éliette Rigon (who is engaged to Jean-Louis Chauvet, a communist resistance fighter who will be shot by the Vichy regime in February 1944) and Odette Amblard. On April 18, 1942, the three young women were arrested on denunciation and imprisoned in Nîmes prison, “ then at Baumettes, in Marseille, where she will be celebrating her 20th birthday “, confides Stéphane Serra.
In January 1944, Andrée and his comrades were transferred to the Rennes power station, then to the Romainville fort. “When the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944, we were deported to Germany, to Neue Bremm, a disciplinary camp near Saarbrücken.” A few days later, Andrée was transferred to the Ravensbruck camp, “where one stepped over the corpses”. “When we arrived we were showered with sleet, Andrée Julien told me some time ago, registration number 40 184. I had slipped the photos of my parents into my mouth, pressed against my palate, and never, even for a gold bar, would I have traded these images. ” She is forced to work in the manufacture of shells in a factory of the Siemens group. The pace of work is hellish. “At the break, we were fighting to find paper and ink so that we could tell about our days. I wanted to say so much!” Seventy-three years later, Andrée has forgotten nothing. And this resistant at heart makes it a point of honor to tell again and again this dark period of our history, and thus to remind the youngest that “It is Hitler who died, and not Nazism! The latter can return at any time and in any place of the world!”
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