Médaille des évadés
The Médaille des évadés (roughly: Medal of those who have escaped) is a French medal that can be awarded to both military and civilians on the occasion of a military conflict. It was awarded to those who had been able to escape enemy custody from the Franco-Prussian War to the end of World War II , or who had tried at least twice in vain.
creation
The medal was created at the suggestion of several so-called “Associations d'évadés” (such as associations of escaped people). To this end, the deputy in the National Assembly , Léon Delsart, introduced a corresponding bill in 1925. This law was passed on August 20, 1926. A decree of October 2nd of the same year established the modalities and the appearance of the medal.
For the claims that arose from the time of the Second World War, the conditions for the award were created by an order of January 7, 1944. The award was discontinued in 1968, but resumed in 1992 - if only for the time of the Second World War.
The medal has the status of an order of war .
Awards
Franco-German War
- For the prisoners of war who were captured in the course of fighting and were able to escape.
First World War
- For the prisoners of war who were captured in the course of fighting and were able to escape.
- For the Alsatians and Lorrainers who deserted the German army between August 2, 1914 and November 1, 1918.
- For the civilian internees in Germany and their relatives from the areas occupied by Germany who crossed the front lines and made themselves available to the French military administration.
Other theaters of war
- For the escaped prisoners of war in the theaters of war in the Levant (1918 to 1919), the Orient (1918 to 1920), Morocco (1918), Equatorial Africa (1919), the West African colonies (Afrique-Occidentale française), and in the Rif War (1921 to 1926) ).
Second World War
- For those people who demonstrably tried to escape with the help of the Resistance from a prisoner of war or internment camp, as well as those who secretly crossed a front line or a state border from the enemy-occupied area in order to escape enemy custody.
- For people who were disciplined after two attempts to escape or for those who were taken to a concentration or deportation camp after trying to escape once .
- The Alsatians and Lorrainers who deserted the German Wehrmacht and joined the Resistance or the Allied troops.
- The Alsatians and Lorrainers who left their homeland to join the fight against the enemy.
Specialty
The medal was awarded to the 2 e régiment de dragons as the only closed association . The regiment belonged to the armistice army of the Vichy government and, after the occupation of this part of France by the Germans, had almost completely emigrated to North Africa or had joined the Resistance with those who remained.
literature
- Jean Jolly (ed.): Dictionnaire des parlementaires français. Notes biographiques sur les ministres, sénateurs et députés français de 1889 à 1940. Volume 4. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1966, p. 1365.
