Francis Bioret
Francis Raymond Marie Bioret (born May 1, 1922 in Versailles ; † April 13, 1945 in Langenau ) was a French slave laborer who, a few days before the end of the Second World War, was illegally sentenced to death on April 13, 1945 on the market square of Baden- Wuerttemberg city of Langenau was murdered by the SS .
Life
Francis Bioret was a trained hairdresser, but last worked in a factory and lived at 23 Rue Basly in Gennevilliers near Paris before he was assigned to a master locksmith in Langenau in Baden-Württemberg as a slave laborer during World War II . Contemporary witnesses from Langenau described him as a "funny fellow who looked like a person from the south of France, liked to smoke, was very agile and was able to perform numerous tricks".
After Bioret had messed with his boss after previous abuse and made threats, he reported him to the SS. The untersturmführer Emil Andreas Leimeister, then deputy head of the stationed in Langenau SS convalescent battalion left, Francis Bioret arrested on the evening of April 13, 1945. Instead of an ordinary trial, one consisting of members of the SS came the same evening in a Langenauer inn stand trial together, the spoke immediately enforceable death sentence Bioret. However, the SS members were not legally authorized to do this.
The following is an excerpt from the official memo on the judgment:
“The court martial, which met on behalf of the authorized representative of the 11th SS Panzer Army for the Ulm and Heidenheim district, decided today in the case of
Francis B ioret:
The French civilian worker Francis Raimond Bioret ... has, according to credible statements made by German comrades, expressed his intention to aid invading American adversary and immediately kill his employer. He refused to work and by doing so showed a dangerous attitude at the present stage of the war. The court martial today sentenced French civil worker Francis Raymond Bioret to death by hanging. The judgment must be carried out immediately. "
Immediately after the verdict, a group of 20 to 30 SS men were ordered to the inn, who then moved with Leimeister, the convicted man and his 25-year-old executioner SS-Oberscharführer Baumhardt to the gallows , which hurriedly next to the Langenau market square an advertising pillar had been erected. The wrongful hanging judgment was carried out at 10:11 pm. Francis Bioret was killed instantly. According to various eyewitness reports, after the execution the dead man hung on the gallows in the city's busy market square for between two and five days. His shoes had fallen off his feet and, as long as the dead man hung on the gallows, lay untouched under him on the ground for days.
Francis Bioret was only 22 years old. His grave is now in a cemetery in Gennevilliers after his grandmother Marie Bioret, the only living relative, applied for the deceased to be transferred there in 1949.
Commemoration
After no one in Langenau had wanted to deal with the crime for many decades, the fate of Bioret was first mentioned in 1985 in a text by teacher Wilmar Jakober on the subject of “Langenau under the swastika. A historical city tour ”. Since 2009 the group "Friends of Francis Bioret", which includes the Langenau artist Michael Döhmann, the historian Andreas Loch, the Langenau "Initiativkreis 8 Mai", the adult education center in Ulm , the pastor Wolfgang Krimmer and several business and Belong to private individuals to uphold the commemoration of Francis Bioret's murder in Langenau. The group organizes the annual commemorations on the day of his death, holds lectures and, in addition to public relations work, also conducts intensive research to find out more facts about Bioret's origin and life. The "Friends of Francis Bioret" were awarded a prize from the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance in November 2014 in the Bavarian State Chancellery in Munich .
On April 13, 2013, the 68th anniversary of his assassination, took place in Langenauer Pfleghof a memorial service for Francis Bioret held, at which the president of the French Association for the reminder on forced labor and war crimes , Jean Chaize, participated. A plaque dedicated to Francis Bioret was then unveiled. The production of the 60 x 60 cm plaque, cast from bronze according to a design by Michael Döhmann , cost around 2,000 euros, which was raised entirely through donations. Among other things, it shows very conspicuously Bioret's well-worn shoes, which were not put away under his gallows for days, and also some juggling balls and a feather as symbols for his artistic talent. The plaque bears the following inscription:
At this point on April 13, 1945, a few days before the end of the war, the French
slave laborer FRANCIS BIORET was hanged by the SS. He was 22 years old.
The plaque found its place exactly where Francis Bioret died on the gallows in 1945, in the wide sidewalk area in front of today's “Café am Marktplatz” opposite the Langenau town hall. Around the bronze plate, larger, irregularly shaped natural stones in different colors were laid, which visually stand out clearly from the surrounding gray rectangular concrete pavement. A circular border made of gray cobblestones forms the transition to the normal pedestrian area.
In his hometown of Gennevilliers, Francis Bioret's name is also engraved on the plaque commemorating the victims of the Second World War.
Legal processing
Only some of the responsible SS men were later called to account. Emil Andreas Leimeister, who played a major part in the crime, was only sentenced to three and a half years in prison in 1961. Other parties involved, such as the hangman Baumhardt, were able to go into hiding or the proceedings against them were dropped.
literature
- Michael Döhmann: “The French will hang!”: Emil Leimeister . In: Wolfgang Proske (Hrsg.): Nazi victims from the Ulm / Neu-Ulm region . Volume 2 of the series: perpetrators, helpers, free riders , Klemm & Oelschläger, Münster / Ulm 2012, ISBN 978-3-86281-062-8
- Ursula Krause-Schmitt: Local history guide to sites of resistance and persecution 1933–1945. Baden-Württemberg II: Freiburg and Tübingen administrative districts. VAS, 1997 ( online )
- LG Stuttgart, June 14, 1961 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicide crimes 1945–1966, Vol. XVII, edited by Irene Sagel-Grande, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1977, No. 513, pp. 555-565 Subject matter of the proceedings: Hanging of a French prisoner of war for allegedly threatening his employer
Web links
- Friends of Francis Bioret on the website of the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance
Individual evidence
- ^ Francis Bioret in the state bibliography Baden-Württemberg online , statistik.baden-wuerttemberg.de, accessed on April 13, 2016
- ↑ a b c d Little hope of finding relatives - hometown in France welcomes Langenauer remembrance work ( memento of April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Südwest Presse, September 17, 2011, swp.de
- ↑ a b Helga Mäckle: Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance distinguishes Langenauer , Südwest Presse, November 20, 2014, swp.de, accessed on April 13, 2016
- ↑ a b c d Helga Mäckle: Bioret and his executioners ( Memento from April 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Südwest Presse, September 17, 2011, swp.de.
- ↑ a b c Memorandum on the judgment of April 13, 1945 , database fold3 , fold3.com, accessed on April 13, 2016 (accessible after free registration)
- ↑ Commemorative speech by Mr. Lörcher. 8mai-kreis.de, accessed on December 16, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Helga Mäckle: Commemoration in form poured , Südwest Presse , April 9, 2013, swp.de, accessed on April 13, 2016
- ↑ Helga Mäckle: Memorial event: Francis Bioret has many faces , Südwest Presse, April 15, 2013, swp.de, accessed on April 13, 2016
- ↑ Commemoration of Francis Bioret , homepage of the Robert-Bosch-Gymnasium Langenau, rbgl.de, accessed on April 13, 2016
- ↑ Helga Mäckle: Who was Francis Bioret? ( Memento from April 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Südwest Presse, January 12, 2011, swp.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bioret, Francis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bioret, Francis Raymond Marie (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French slave laborer, victim of National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 1, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Versailles |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 13, 1945 |
| Place of death | Langenau |