He has been interested in the Great War for thirty years and has already been carrying out his research on French soldiers shot by their own army for two decades. “ Because I have never tolerated injustice and it freezes me deep inside », testifies Eric Viot.
After six years of work, the original Manchois devotes his latest book “Save my men” to the tragic story of Commander Frédéric Wolff, mobilized in 1914 at the age of 45 and the only senior officer executed by the French army. from 1is September 1914, therefore in the very first days of the war. The condemned man justified “ his fault ” as ” the only way to save his men ».
The mystery of the “lady in black”
« I traced his journey from his birth to his death and until the 1920s when his relatives tried, in vain, to obtain his rehabilitation », relates the author. In Nancy, Eric Viot consulted the exhumation file of Wolff's body, the clandestine act in 1920 of a mysterious “lady in black” that the author managed to identify. In his investigation, the writer also learned that the son, Henri Wolff, died as a soldier on July 16, 1918 in the area of Fosse-en-Haut (Aisne). “ One point remained unanswered, I don't know where Frédéric Wolff's body ended up », Reveals the researcher.
An ardent defender of the cause of the executed, Eric Viot is still fighting for the collective rehabilitation of some 640 executed (767 with the so-called common law convicts) and his long research is refining their number and the departments of executions.
« Between 1is September and December 31, 1914, there was one French shooting per day on average. But the greatest number of people shot, 300, was recorded in 1915 », explains Eric Viot. Influenced by the Chemin des Dames mutinies and those shot as an example, many people interested in the question thought that the darkest year was 1917 (106 in total).
Over the four and a half years of war, out of a total of 767 executed, including seven after the Armistice in 1919, the specialist lists 177 executions in Marne, 130 in Meuse, 62 in Pas-de-Calais, 60 in Aisne, 44 in Somme and 36 in Oise. These sordid statistics also do not take into account summary executions.
From 1917 to 1934, there were 44 French executioners rehabilitated. A century later in 2013, Eric Viot was interviewed as an expert by the Hollande commission. The collective rehabilitation bill was adopted by the National Assembly in January 2022 but rejected in the Senate in February 2023. The text must come back for second reading before the assembly.
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