Etobon massacre
The Etobon massacre was a war crime committed by the Germans in occupied France on September 27, 1944. 39 residents of the town of Étobon were shot and others were abducted.
History and process
In the period after the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, there was increased resistance to actions in the area around Étobon in the Haute-Saône department in eastern France . This resulted in the deaths of several Germans, but also of French civilians. As a result, on September 24, 1944, a mounted command of the German occupiers rounded up all male residents of the village between the ages of 16 and 50 in the town hall and forced them to do earthworks. The soldiers who later murdered the French probably belonged to the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS . This consisted largely of members of the protection team and Russian volunteers who were deployed in the fight against partisans. The reprisals then dragged on until September 27, when another German unit, presumably members of the Gestapo , moved into Etobon. Now all male residents between 16 and 60 years of age were locked in the village school and the whole place was searched. After further arrests and interrogations, the prisoners were taken to the neighboring village of Chenebier . Around 4 p.m., 27 of them were taken to Belfort by truck . They were deported to Germany, 7 of them were executed at a later date. A group of 39 French were then unceremoniously shot as alleged "terrorists" at the church wall in Chenebier with submachine guns . One of the shooters is said to have been an Italian SS soldier who volunteered and later boasted of the crime in front of the villagers. A Cossack captain and a German officer with the rank of colonel were identified as further responsible .
Until the liberation of Étobon on November 18, the unit of the perpetrators of the massacre was billeted in the village. There were numerous looting and acts of violence. The perpetrators could not be tracked down and convicted after the war . A memorial plaque and honorary graves in Chenebier and Étobon remind of the deed today.
literature
- Peter Lieb : Conventional war or Nazi ideological war? Warfare and the fight against partisans in France 1943/44 , Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57992-5 .
- Writings of the Federal Archives, Edition 3. H. Boldt Verlag.