Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Remembering WW2
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Remembering WW2
the podcast
by Sarah Heath | Remembering World War II
http://thehexagon.space/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Remember-WW2.mp3
It's difficult when admiring the peaceful countryside we see today, to imagine the barbarity which went on in this part of the world around 80 years ago. German forces took over south west France and the reality which had to be faced by the people who lived here was unthinkable. And while the military heroes are deservedly saluted each year on days of commemoration, civilians (whose fathers, sons and brothers fought on the front line) and what they lived through, are often overlooked. Their discreet part in the war effort is largely unsung but their stories are equally, if not more, fascinating than their family members who fought in the armed forces.
Jean-Louis, the man from whom we bought our house in Gaillac, who remains a neighbour and friend, is one such witness to life during the war. His family lived on a farm near Toulouse when war broke out and he has clear memories of that time when he was just a young boy. He remembers the day when his family were visited by SS officers searching for resistance fighters and illegal weapons. They had apparently been tipped off by neighbours (such was the level of distrust at the time) and while walking around their home, one officer noticed a photograph of Jean-Louis's father, Gaston, dressed in army uniform. The officer spat on the floor in contempt upon which six-year-old Jean-Louis also spat on the floor. His young patriotism was rewarded with a sharp tap on the cheek with the officer's whip.
Gaston, at the time of this unwelcome intrusion, and unbeknown to the rest of the family, was a prisoner of war. A soldier in the 14th Infantry Regiment, he had been captured in 1940 in the Vosges Mountains. After having been initially kept prisoner in Italy, (he escaped twice before being recaptured), he was subsequently transferred to Rawa Ruska, a prison camp in the Ukraine. Rawa Ruska was known as "the camp of thirst and slow death" and from 1942, was where French prisoners endured torture and starvation as punishment for refusing to work in German factories, or for sabotaging German facilities. Gaston was kept in this hellish place before finally being repatriated at the end of the war in 1945. For over two years, Jean-Louis and the rest of the family didn't know whether he was alive or dead.
Jean-Louis's wife, Christine, has an equally fascinating personal recollection of the war, also around the Toulouse area. When war was declared, her father, André Mot, became a member of the Blagnac Résistance. This part of France was under the control of the Nazi-collaborating Vichy government and along with many others, Mot felt he couldn't stand by and do nothing. He became heavily involved in the Résistance's communication networks. He was responsible for distributing Résistance newspapers as a sideline to his respectable accountancy job. But Mot soon became engaged in far more dangerous activities.
View all episodes
the podcast
by Sarah Heath | Remembering World War II
http://thehexagon.space/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Remember-WW2.mp3
It's difficult when admiring the peaceful countryside we see today, to imagine the barbarity which went on in this part of the world around 80 years ago. German forces took over south west France and the reality which had to be faced by the people who lived here was unthinkable. And while the military heroes are deservedly saluted each year on days of commemoration, civilians (whose fathers, sons and brothers fought on the front line) and what they lived through, are often overlooked. Their discreet part in the war effort is largely unsung but their stories are equally, if not more, fascinating than their family members who fought in the armed forces.
Jean-Louis, the man from whom we bought our house in Gaillac, who remains a neighbour and friend, is one such witness to life during the war. His family lived on a farm near Toulouse when war broke out and he has clear memories of that time when he was just a young boy. He remembers the day when his family were visited by SS officers searching for resistance fighters and illegal weapons. They had apparently been tipped off by neighbours (such was the level of distrust at the time) and while walking around their home, one officer noticed a photograph of Jean-Louis's father, Gaston, dressed in army uniform. The officer spat on the floor in contempt upon which six-year-old Jean-Louis also spat on the floor. His young patriotism was rewarded with a sharp tap on the cheek with the officer's whip.
Gaston, at the time of this unwelcome intrusion, and unbeknown to the rest of the family, was a prisoner of war. A soldier in the 14th Infantry Regiment, he had been captured in 1940 in the Vosges Mountains. After having been initially kept prisoner in Italy, (he escaped twice before being recaptured), he was subsequently transferred to Rawa Ruska, a prison camp in the Ukraine. Rawa Ruska was known as "the camp of thirst and slow death" and from 1942, was where French prisoners endured torture and starvation as punishment for refusing to work in German factories, or for sabotaging German facilities. Gaston was kept in this hellish place before finally being repatriated at the end of the war in 1945. For over two years, Jean-Louis and the rest of the family didn't know whether he was alive or dead.
Jean-Louis's wife, Christine, has an equally fascinating personal recollection of the war, also around the Toulouse area. When war was declared, her father, André Mot, became a member of the Blagnac Résistance. This part of France was under the control of the Nazi-collaborating Vichy government and along with many others, Mot felt he couldn't stand by and do nothing. He became heavily involved in the Résistance's communication networks. He was responsible for distributing Résistance newspapers as a sideline to his respectable accountancy job. But Mot soon became engaged in far more dangerous activities.