Memory, Resistance and citizenship will be at the heart of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Dordogne, in 2024, supported by the Departmental Council. This desire is affirmed in a particular context, with upheavals on the international level and at a time when society appears to be increasingly fractured. Through the memorial actions implemented by the Department, the community affirms its wish to bring a note of hope to the younger generations, by offering them the necessary tools for a thoughtful and sensitive approach to the action of the Resistance. in Dordogne. The Department wishes, in fact, to pass on to today’s young people, 80 years later, the torch of the struggles of these young men and young women who, at the risk of their lives, said no and stood up against the occupation Nazi and collaboration.
The memorial programming proposed by the Department in 2024 and 2025 comes in different forms: conference cycle, publishing, artistic creations and educational and pedagogical actions.
To mark the anniversary of the Second World War, the Department wishes to commission the production of a work in the spirit of “Memory, resistance and citizenship”, in the form of a comic strip created by Jean-David Morvan. The author is not unknown since he can claim to his credit several successful series with similar themes (Irena, Simone, Ginette Kolinka, Madeleine, Résistante, etc…).
Once the artistic creation order has been placed, the author should be entrusted with the scenario using historical elements and testimonies and, following the model of his previous publications, a historical file should complete the work. Interventions in colleges are also planned. The design should, for its part, be entrusted to Richard Yen, known by his pseudonym Scie Tronc. The comic book should be published nationally in April 2025 by the publishing house Caurette, distributed by Glénat and distributed by Hachette. Each 3rd grade student in Dordogne colleges will receive this book.
For the record, on the occasion of the release of “Madeleine, resistant” by Dupuis in 2022, Jean-David Morvan is rewarded with the prestigious Prix René-
Goscinny. The same year, he published “Simone”, a moving biopic with David Evrard awarded the Prix des colleges at the Angoulême Festival in 2023. In 2024, he published “Missak, Mélinée et le groupe Manouchian”.
Furthermore, the new edition of the work “The Dordogne in the Second World War”, published by Editions Fanlac under the direction of Anne-Marie Cocula and Bernard Lachaise, will be the subject of a presentation on Monday June 17, 2024 at 6 p.m. in the Salon Claude Erignac of the Prefecture in Périgueux. This collective work, initiated in 2017 by the Department, which participated in its edition and reissue, is today a reference.
A series of conferences
The Department offers a series of conferences based on research, testimonies and publications on the period of the Second World War. Three meetings are scheduled for May and June. Firstly, on Friday May 31 at 6 p.m. at the Espace culturelle François Mitterrand in Périgueux, Bernard Reviriego will give a conference on “the Brehmer division in Dordogne”. Chief curator of heritage, Bernard Reviriego worked for a long time at the Departmental Archives of Dordogne. He is the author of the reference work Jews in Dordogne, 1939-1944, from reception to persecution (Fanlac, 2003), prefaced by Serge Klarsfeld. At the beginning of 2023, he published Jews Refugees in Dordogne. The roundups of February 1943 (Fanlac, 2023), also prefaced by Serge Klarsfeld. He has also participated in several collective works, including Vichy en Aquitaine (Editions de l’Atelier, 2011) or La Dordogne dans la Guerre Mondiale (Editions Fanlac, 2020). Today, he actively participates alongside Jacques Ranoux in keeping the duty of memory alive.
Then on Monday June 3, 2024 at 6 p.m. at the François Mitterrand Cultural Space in Périgueux, Anne-Marie Cocula, historian, will give a conference entitled “43-44-45, years of Périgord childhood”. Associate Professor of History, former president of Bordeaux-Montaigne University, Anne-Marie Cocula is a specialist in modern history (16th-18th centuries). Périgourdine, passionate and specialist in Montaigne, Anne-Marie Cocula is very active in the defense of this territory. She signed with Bernard Lachaise notably “The Dordogne in the Second World War”.
The 3rd meeting will take place on Friday June 7, 2024 at 6 p.m. at the Joséphine Baker Departmental Center, Jean-Noël Jeanneney will give a conference entitled “The French press before defeat: nobility and corruption”. Jean-Noël Jeanneney is a historian. A former student of the École normale supérieure de la rue d’Ulm and a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies, he is an associate professor of history and a doctor of letters. He is a university professor at the Institute of Political Studies of
Paris since 1977. Jean-Noël Jeanneney chaired Radio France and Radio France Internationale from 1982 to 1986, and the Bicentenary Mission of the French Revolution in 1988-1989. He was Secretary of State for Foreign Trade (1991-1992) and Communication (1992-1993) and President of the National Library of France from 2002 to 2007. Editorial advisor to the journal L’Histoire since its creation , he directs and presents the show Concordance des temps, on Saturday mornings, on France Culture.
Note also, on Wednesday June 19, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at the Joséphine Baker Departmental Center in Périgueux, the creation of Patrick Ochs will be offered: “The twisted rifle”. Last February, Patrick Ochs retraced in a monologue an episode in the life of Max, a Jewish resistance fighter, arrested in Périgueux in 1942. First sent to Drancy, he was then shipped to Auschwitz-Birkenau, passing through the camps of Monowitz and Dora. Survivor of the hell of the extermination camps, his testimony unearths an unspeakable past. The text was entitled “The ramp”. Patrick Ochs is now offering a new creation, constructed through listening and reading testimonies from resistance fighters. Patrick Ochs is also a singer, for a long time on the roads of France with the group Rue de la muette. In this context, he paid tribute to the Jewish victims of the raids, in music, with the title: La muette à Drancy
Exhibitions thanks to the Departmental Archives
Thanks to the joint work of Nicolas Cournil and Manuel Lorenzo, under the direction of Maïté Etchechoury, the Departmental Archives are offering a series of virtual exhibitions, the first two parts of which are already available online on the Archives website.
The Brehmer division in Dordogne (The Brehmer division in Dordogne)
The militia in the spring of 1944 ((Dordogne.fr)
Pre-insurrection propaganda (publication at the end of May)
The insurrection (publication June 6)
Allied aid (publication June 10)
The German counter-offensive (publication mid-June)
Resistance operations in the department (publication in July)
The Liberation of the department (publication in August)
In addition to these virtual exhibitions, the Departmental Archives also offer a permanent exhibition dedicated to the Second World War entitled “War, occupation, Resistance and Deportation from 1935 to 1945 in Dordogne”. The exhibition is made up of 26 panels created by graphic designer Jacques Boireau. It was produced with the assistance of the ANACR Dordogne Périgord, the Departmental Archives of Dordogne, the Memory Center, the Edmond Michelet Center in Brive-la-Gaillarde, the Resistance Foundation and with the collaboration of Patrick Ranoux (cartography), Bernard Reviriego, Patrice Rolli (to whom we owe rich iconographic documents) and the publisher Bernard Tardien (Fanlac). The exhibition is structured around five distinct periods which begin with:
– From Munich to Rethondes, the march to war and the trauma of defeat,
– The establishment of the Vichy regime and the difficult beginnings of the resistance (summer 1940-end 1941),
– The turning points of 1942, the gap widens with Vichy, the resistance gains legitimacy,
– Spring 1943-Spring 1944: rise of resistance and radicalization of repression,
– The battles of the Liberation and the end of the war.
The themes are constructed identically: from the global situation to the local situation. The exhibition is visible on request during opening hours of the Departmental Archives.
Movie theater
The memorial program proposed by the Department will also include a cinematographic component, firstly with the screening of a rare and unpublished documentary on Friday October 18 at 6 p.m. at the Joséphine Baker Departmental Center: “La Résistance en Dordogne”. This documentary, produced in the early 1990s by Patrick Salinié and Francis Sorbier, is essentially composed of testimonies from resistance fighters in Périgord. The screening will be followed by an exchange with the audience.
Other films are awaiting programming dates or confirmation of the presence of their directors in fall 2024 and spring 2025:
“The Legacy of Aristedes” by Patrick Séraudie. This film retraces the heroic action of the Portuguese consul Aristedes de Sousa Mendes stationed in Bordeaux between 1938 and 1940 and who issued tens of thousands of visas in a few days.
“Resistance”, a four-part documentary by author, historian and screenwriter Patrick Rotman (in spring 2025)
“209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris, 10th” by Ruth Zylberman. At the end of a long investigation, Ruth Zylberman found the inhabitants of a Parisian building whose childhood had been ransacked during the Occupation. Combining historical rigor and visual creativity, this documentary film is magnificent. She
will come to Dordogne in the spring of 2025 to discuss his film and the work that succeeded it.
Finally, note that specific commemorations will take place in several communes of Dordogne in the coming weeks. Commemorations which the Department will echo. Eew. vs.
