Tence

Tence ; Tença
region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Haute Loire
Arrondissement	Yssingeaux
Canton	Boutières (main town)
Community association	Haut-Lignon
Coordinates	45 ° 7 ' N , 4 ° 17' E Coordinates: 45 ° 7 ' N , 4 ° 17' E
height	803-1,127 m
surface	52.12 km 2
Residents	3,098 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	59 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	43190
INSEE code	43244
Website	ville-tence.fr
	; Lignon du Velay gorge

Tence is a commune with 3098 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Haute-Loire in the region Auvergne Rhône-Alpes .

geography

Tence is located 30 kilometers southeast of Firminy and is traversed by the Lignon du Velay .

history

According to a source, Tence was inhabited by Roman legionnaires at an uncertain time. The Roman troops were in the area in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC when they conquered Gaul and built roads. Evidence for the presence of the Romans is the name ending ac , as it is included in the names of several hamlets of Tence. When the Moors reached the Velay in the 8th century , many places, including Tence, were sacked. Tence was first mentioned in a document in the 10th century. At that time it was the seat of the vicar of the County of Velay, which was dependent on the Bishop of Le Puy . Benedictine monks founded a monastery in Tence in the 11th century. The monastery stood on the site of today's town hall and formed the center of the village. This was protected by a wall with two portals, which disappeared in the 17th century. Tence was badly affected by the Wars of Religion. In 1574 it was initially conquered by the Protestants, but in 1577 it was recaptured by the Catholics. The Jesuits took over the monastery. During this time, simple Christian houses appeared (e.g. with a bell tower), through which the children of the Catholic Church in particular were to be brought closer. Separate Christian schools were built for boys and girls. In 1891 a pastor from Saint-Étienne went on vacation in the region and founded the organization Organisationuvre des Enfants à la Montagne , which enabled children from the city of Saint-Étienne to vacation in the area around Tence every year. In 1902 Tence was connected to the Loire Valley by rail. In 1912 Tence received his coat of arms, the motto is: Alta sicut montes corda ("Our hearts are as big as our mountains"). The international Collège Cévenol was established in 1938 in the Protestant neighboring town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon . During the Second World War , the region served as a place of refuge for the victims of the Nazi regime.

The internment camp 1939-1940

In Tence there used to be a paper mill (papeterie), it had almost 200 workers at the beginning of the 20th century. It ceased operations in 1926, the large buildings were empty. In 1939 the Prefect Maurice Belliard commandeered the buildings to house Republican refugees fleeing the Franquists after they lost the Spanish Civil War . After a few months they were distributed to other camps. After the armistice in June 1940, which followed the German occupation of France, the now installed Vichy regime interned all "Reichsdeutsche" (defined according to Nazi diction, including Sudeten Germans and Austrians ) and assigned the prefects to the task of capturing them accommodate. At first there were convinced Nazis in these camps. B. had just been in France for professional reasons, and actual refugees, i.e. Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution, were forcibly together until the Kundt Commission separated them.

The first group of about 30 "Germans" from all over the department was sent to la Fouillouse . But as early as June 1940, other prisoners arrived at the Tence paper mill; they came from the Dreux camp and the Île de France. Most of them were Jews, Germans, Austrians and Poles by nationality, who had lived as refugees in France. Some of them had already passed the Gurs camp . According to a list dated August 25, 1940, 132 prisoners lived in the paper mill, 15 of whom had applied for political asylum. Everyone refused to return to the Reich when the Ernst Kundt Commission asked them to do so. They preferred to emigrate to the USA or Mexico. When Vichy issued the first Jewish statute on October 3, 1940 , the refugees were immediately again moved across the country, to special camps for "undesirable foreigners". So the paper mill lost its temporary residents. On October 25, the de jure camp was disbanded. Most of the residents were sent to Gurs by November 1940, from where they, as far as Jews, were later sent to the German extermination camps .

In 2005, a large memorial stone was erected on the river Lignon, which supplied the old paper mill with water. A small stone right next to it reminds of the fate of the short-term residents in the internment camp in 1939 and 1940.