Deportations from Lacapelle-Biron
The deportations from Lacapelle-Biron was an operation carried out on May 21, 1944 by a unit of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" in Lacapelle-Biron in the Lot-et-Garonne department in southern France .
Historical background
The small village of Lacapelle-Biron lies away from the big centers in a valley that is framed by wooded hills. This geographic location was ideal for persecuted Jews and groups of Resistance fighters who camped in the woods.
On May 1, 1944, resistance fighters parade through the streets of Lacapelle. The Gestapo , which had set up their headquarters in Agen in the area since 1943 , therefore, together with the Milice française , turned their attention to the small community.
The 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" was relocated from the Eastern Front to the Bordeaux area at the beginning of 1944 and in April 1944 to the Montauban - Toulouse area. In addition to freshening up, it was her job to fight units of the Resistance and to track down secret arsenals. But it also terrorized the people who were suspected of supporting the resistance.
course
At the initiative of the Gestapo, a unit of the division drove from Gavaudun to the village on May 21, 1944 . The soldiers met the 71-year-old mayor of the community, M. Larrigue, and had his 75-year-old community servant brought in. This was treated roughly and had to get into a truck. She was compelled to announce an immediate gathering of all men at every intersection.
The village was cordoned off. In the square where the deportation memorial stands today, the mayor called out the names of the men with the municipal register in his hand. Sixty men, including the priest, were brought together in a meadow under the guard of the soldiers. Houses, huts and barns were searched during the day. The soldiers also extended their action to neighboring villages, where people were tortured or shot. In the evening, 47 men between the ages of 18 and 60 were brought onto the trucks. More prisoners were taken on the way to the barracks in Agen. 108 men were subsequently deported to the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps. Only 23 men were able to return to Lacapelle after their liberation.
The mass arrest in Lacapelle-Biron was the largest in the department. It was therefore decided to erect a memorial by the Belgian artist Raymond Buisseret there in 1947 to commemorate the deportation. In an allegory it symbolizes the suffering of a total of 211 people from the Lot-et-Garonne department who never returned home. A large number of arms protruding from the ground carry a block of granite on which the names of the abducted people are inscribed.
The “Mémoire vive” association aims to preserve the memory of the deportation.
Media about the event
Based on an eyewitness account, Jacques Augié and Bernard Sémerjian produced the documentary “La rafle au cœur” about the event.
The French historian and writer Jean-Pierre Koscielniak described the event in his book “May 21, 1944: histoire et mémoire d'une rafle de la division Das Reich”. He is a co-founder of the association “Mémoire de la Resistance en Lot-et-Garonne” and has been researching the time of the German occupation of France in World War II and the liberation for over 20 years .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pourquoi lacapelle-biron? ( fr ) Association “Mémoire vive”. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Agen. May 21, 1944: Le jour où Lacapelle-Biron connut des heures sombres ( fr ) La Dépêche du Midi . December 15, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Gérard Chauvy, Philippe Valode: La gestapo française ( fr ) edi8. 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Patrimoine et Histoire ( fr ) Lacapelle-Biron municipality. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
- ↑ François Frimaudeau: Monument départemental de la deportation, Lacapelle-Biron (Lot-et-Garonne) ( fr ) Fondation de la Résistance. 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
literature
- Jean-Pierre Koscielniak: May 21, 1944: histoire et mémoire d'une rafle de la division Das Reich , Mémoire de la résistance en Haute-Garonne, 2014, ISBN 978-2-9547029-0-2