Manouchian group

The Manouchian group was named after Missak Manouchian , one of its leaders, a partisan group of the French Resistance that existed during the German occupation of France in World War II between 1940 and 1944 and carried out numerous attacks against the German occupying forces. A total of 23 members of the group were arrested in December 1943 by a brigade of the French secret service and in February 1944 by a Wehrmacht firing squad shot .

organization

The Manouchian group was an armed task force of the partisan organization FTP-MOI ( Francs-Tireurs et Partisans - Main-d'œuvre immigrée ) in the Paris district and consisted mostly of immigrants from different countries. The group was led by Joseph Epstein , called Colonel Gilles ( nom-de-guerre ), and Missak Manouchian. The latter held the military leadership. The group had 40 members at its largest.

Executed on Mont Valérien

Below are the members of the group who were arrested at the end of 1943 and executed in Fort du Mont Valérien (or Olga Bancic in May 1944 in Stuttgart) in February 1944 . They then became known under the name groupe de L'Affiche rouge . The Affiche rouge (The Red Poster) was a propaganda poster by the Germans, on which photos of ten of the arrested were depicted on a red background and which denigrated the whole group as L'armée du crime (Army of Crime).

Celestino Alfonso - Spaniard
Olga Bancic - Romanian Jew
Joseph Boczov - Hungarian Jew
Georges Cloarec - French
Rino Della Negra - Italian
Thomas Elek - Hungarian Jew
Maurice Fingercwajg - Polish Jew
Spartaco Fontano - Italian
Imre Glasz - Hungarian Jew
Jonas Geduldig - Polish Jew
Léon Goldberg - Polish Jew
Szlama Grzywacz - Polish Jew
Stanislas Kubacki - Pole
Arpen Lavitian - Armenian
Cesare Luccarini - Italian
Missak Manouchian - Armenians
Marcel Rayman - Polish Jew
Roger Rouxel - French
Antonio Salvadori - Italian
Willy Schapiro - Polish Jew
Amadeo Usseglio - Italian
Wolf Wajsbrot - Polish Jew
Robert Witchitz - French Jew

All of the named except Olga Bancic, the only woman in the group, were executed by shooting on February 21, 1944 in Fort du Mont Valérien. The firing squad consisted of German soldiers. Olga Bancic although also sentenced to death, was not executed here since a French law the Fusiliers forbade women. She was later beheaded on May 10, 1944 in Stuttgart .

Other members of the Manochian group

Ildo Stanzani - Italian, managed to escape
Arsène Tchakarian - Armenian
Hélène Kro - Polish communist, Jewish, was killed in a raid in 1942
and more

Life as a resistance fighter

Contemporary witness report (excerpt) by Arsène Tchakarian , Armenian, last survivor of the Manouchian group:

Fin 1943, les Allemands avaient repéré que les francs-tireurs étaient des immigrés, et le travail devenait de plus en plus périlleux. Ils se sont mis à suivre tout le monde, malgré les infinies précautions que nous prenions. Missak Manouchian voulait changer de domicile, mais ce n'était pas chose facile, surtout pour un immigré. Les camarades juifs avaient de faux papiers, car la MOI disposait d'un réseau spécial pour en falsifier, mais ils n'étaient pas toujours très convaincants. Pour les Arméniens, c'était plus facile, parce qu'on pouvait toujours, all se réfugier chez quelqu'un de la communauté arménienne. Pour les juifs, c'était extreme difficile. Il n'y avait plus de communauté. Ils étaient tous menacés.

- Arsène Tchakarian : memoire-net.org - 2. Les FTP- MOI: la guérilla urbaine

“By the end of 1943 the Germans had discovered that the Francs-Tireurs were immigrants, and the work was becoming increasingly dangerous. Despite all of our infinite precautions, they began to persecute everyone. Missak Manouchian wanted to change apartments, but it was not an easy thing, especially for an immigrant. The Jewish comrades had forged papers because the MOI had a special department to forge them, but they [the forged ID cards] were not always very convincing. It was easier for the Armenians because they could always find refuge with someone from the Armenian community. It was very difficult for the Jews. They no longer had any community [because of the deportations]. They were all threatened. "

Contemporary witness report by Arsène Tchakarian (excerpt from a report about Olga Bancic and the women in the FTP-MOI ):

[…] In certains quartiers ces actions étaient particulièrement difficiles. C'était une époque où les résistants vivaient dans la crainte d'être pris, ils étaient sans cesse aux aguets, se méfiaient de tout. Le danger était si grand que beaucoup de camarades avaient l'impression qu'ils n'iraient pas jusqu'au bout, jusqu'à la Liberation. Il fallait passer et repasser à travers les mailles du filet. Ils pensaient toujours qu'ils seraient pris et fusillés. Les femmes étaient les plus attentives, elles faisaient très attention. Il y avait ceux dans le groupe qui n'avaient peur de rien, ceux dont les familles avaient été déportées, ce qui les rendaient encore plus combatifs. [...]

- Arsène Tchakarian : Les nouvelles du temps - Olga Bancic

“[…] In certain quarters [of Paris] these actions were particularly difficult. This was a time when the resistance fighters lived in fear of capture, they were constantly on guard, constantly suspicious. The danger was so great that many comrades had the impression that they would not survive until the end, until liberation. The mesh of the safety net had to be traversed again and again. They thought every day that they would be caught and shot. The women were the most attentive, they were very careful. There were those in the group who weren't afraid of anything; those were those whose families had been deported, which made them even more combative. [...] "

Picture gallery

The portrait photos of the resistance fighters come from the German Federal Archives and were taken by "war reporter Theobald". The photos were probably taken in February 1944, just before the prisoners were executed, when they were shown to the press for propaganda purposes.