In the Dollfus Foundation nursing home where he lives in Mulhouse, Henri Fierling, 96, was awarded a rare distinction: the great gold medal of the National Union of Combatants. A look back at the military and civilian career of this former SACM executive with an impressive memory.
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“I think he is one of the last incorporated by force from Mulhouse. He is honorary vice-president of our section and he was its general secretary for a very long time”, presents Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Durr, president of the UNC section. [Union nationale des combattants] from Mulhouse. The Mulhousien he is talking about, Henri Fierling, 96, was awarded the UNC Grand Gold Medal on Friday, February 24, during a ceremony organized within the Jean-Dollfus Foundation nursing home. , in Mulhouse, where the nonagenarian has been living since last April, in his Dornach district.
This medal is “the highest distinction of merit of the UNC”, underlined Alain Guth, the departmental president of the UNC, who came to give it to Henri Fierling surrounded by Albert Durr and Joseph Goester, president of the sub-group from Mulhouse. All three congratulated the recipient, who has been involved in the association for seventy-two years (he has been a member since 1951).
Alain Guth, the departmental president of the UNC, presenting the association’s great gold medal to Henri Fierling. Both are surrounded by Albert Durr (on the left), the president of the UNC section of Mulhouse, Joseph Goester, president of the sub-group of Mulhouse, and a flag bearer of the association. Photo Alsace /François FUCHS
Excluded from his business school
Born August 19, 1926, Henri Fierling was a student at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Mulhouse when the Second World War began. He will not be able to complete his course there, because of an episode which he remembers as if it were yesterday. One day, he says, a leader of the school announced that the German government was going to send German educational advisers to the establishment “so that the Alsatians also learn something”. And the nonagenarian continues: “I answered him: ‘Listen, there are also Germans who are stupid’. So they kicked me out. »
More than seven decades later, Henri Fierling keeps a hard tooth against the one to whom he owes his exclusion: “Even today, I call him an imbecile! »
From RAD to enlistment in the French army
In July 1941, the Mulhousien who had to leave his business school was hired by the SACM (Alsacian Society of Mechanical Constructions), as an apprentice. In 1943, a new turning point: “I passed the medical examination of incorporation of force in the German army, in Mulhouse. And after, I was at the RAD [Reichsarbeitsdienst, le service du travail du Reich] in Germany,” says Henri Fierling. He is assigned to the Koblenz region. “We worked in the fields, we built bridges…”
In 1944, on returning from leave, the Mulhousien discovered his call-up order in an SS division. He decides to flee: “I took refuge in the Vosges”, he says.
And Henri Fierling is committed to the liberation of his country. “I fought in the FFI [les Forces françaises de l’intérieur]. I joined the 1re French army, at 23e infantry regiment. I campaigned as far as Germany. »
After the end of the war, the Mulhousien re-engaged and remained in the military until March 15, 1947, when he had to leave the army for health reasons. “I then applied again to my former employer, the SACM in Mulhouse. »
Chief of Staff
Henri Fierling spent his entire career at SACM, where he was Etam personnel manager [employés, techniciens et agents de maîtrise]until his retirement in 1982. With a break of eight months, he specifies: being a reserve non-commissioned officer, he was called back to active duty during the Algerian war, where he officiated as a non-commissioned officer in May to December 1956, in the sectors of Tiaret and Bou Saâda.
During his professional life, the Mulhouse executive has been involved in several bodies. “I was vice-president of the Assedic du Haut-Rhin and adviser in various pension funds”, he relates.
In 1947 Henri Fierling married Frieda Kuntz, who died at the end of 2021. The couple had two sons. The eldest, Jean-Marie, 69, lives in Brunstatt. His brother Christian, 66, lives in Mulhouse.
“It fascinated me”
Friday, after receiving his medal and thanking all the actors of this ceremony, Henri Fierling spoke about the history of the UNC and his commitment within the Mulhouse section. “It fascinated me”, he confided, welcoming “the spirit of camaraderie and fraternity” that he found within the association.
Throughout his speech, the veteran from Mulhouse, who is a Knight of the Legion of Honor and an officer of the National Order of Merit, quoted these words from Clemenceau: “Ultimately, the victims of war died for nothing . Only they died for us. »
A little later, before inviting us to a drink of friendship, Henri Fierling concluded his speech on a humorous note: “The only thing that was better before was that we were younger! “, he launched with a smile.
