Le Gardois Eric Grieu, president of the French Souvenir committee of Pont-Saint-Esprit, is releasing a third book: “Le Gard combatant, with or without uniform”. A dive into the Gard Resistance from July 40 to August 44.
Eric Grieu’s third book comes out on June 18, quite a symbol for this buff of the history of the First and Second World Wars, and president of the French Remembrance Committee of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which works for the conservation of the memory of the dead for France.
To write “Le Gard combatant: with or without uniform”, where he takes stock of the situation “of the different movements and types of resistance in Gard from July 1940 to August 1944, under Vichy” he summarizes, the Gardois worked for four years, in particular immersing himself in the books of historians of the Resistance, “like the Gard resistance fighter Aimé Vielzeuf. Around fifty historians have worked on this subject in Gard.
Vintage photos
To make the story more lively, the work is rich in period photos, such as that of Commander Vigan-Braquet in Saint-Laurent-des-Arbres, or exceptional objects. “I had permission to photograph the double-soled Spartan, kept in the reserves of the Pont-Saint-Esprit Museum of Sacred Art.” explains Eric Grieu. “This shoe was used to pass an ink stamp which allowed the FFI acronym to be written on the armbands of the resistance fighters“. He also attached photos of uniforms from his personal collection, without forgetting the first front page of Midi Libre on August 27, 1944.
“I quote most of the resistance fighters and I apologize for those I forgot! People were going into battle in sweaters and work shoes! And some will always remain in the shadows” he regrets. As politicians, he highlights the courage of “Georges Bruguier, of the SFIO (French section of the Workers’ International, former PS), only senator from Gard to have said no to Pétain”.
“Different types of resistance fighters in Gard”
“The Resistance in Gard was never homogeneous, political parties often took the upper hand, everyone had their own group. There were different zones and different types of resistance in the department: FTP (French francs-tireurs and partisans), FFI (French forces of the interior), ME (Immigrant workforce), Ora (Army Resistance Organization)…” says the historian. “In the Rhone Gard, it was the Ora maquis, led by Commander Vigan-Braquet. He trained young people and created, with officers from Nîmes, in Rochefort-du-Gard, the Corps francs network of the Ardennes. Because in Rochefort, there are a lot of maquis.“.
The other Gard maquis, Cévennes-Aigoual, Bir-Hakeim… are also described with anecdotes. “The Cévennes writer Jean-Pierre Chabrol came across Spanish guerrillas between Gard and Lozère, who were arriving from the Spanish War and wanted to fight against the Nazis”. The commitment of women in the Resistance has not been forgotten. “I dedicate a chapter to them. They remained in the shadows while they saved people and risked their lives”.
In Remoulins, a woman gives water to the deportees crowded into the ghost train
Throughout the pages, the horrors of the war are recalled: hunger, Allied bombings with its numerous deaths, or even the ghost train, which left Toulouse in July 1944, destined for the death camps with more than 700 women and men. crammed into cattle cars. “A woman testifies that she brought water to the deportees when the train stopped in Remoulins”.
Eric Grieu was also interested in the presence of the Nazis in Gard, “they occupied the most beautiful houses, such as for example in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon”, and encourages people to go see the remains of the bunkers near the Espiguette lighthouse in Grau-du-Roi.
“I was not able to talk about everything that happened in the Gard. To talk about the Resistance, it would take an encyclopedia of 4 or 5 volumes!”
