Last Saturday, at the Grand Angle cinema, the La Floureto cultural association presented a conference by Henri Calhiol on a fascinating and passionate subject to a large audience. The discovery of unpublished documents (and there were many during the commemoration in 2024 of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation) advances knowledge. This is the case regarding the author of the capture on June 20, 1944 in L'Isle-Jourdain of Captain Jäger, German officer of the Kommandantur of Auch, a significant part of the history of the Resistance in the Gers. The consequences of this capture of a man who occupied a major and little-known operational role, which degenerated into summary execution, were addressed and analyzed in detail. This episode of the Resistance in the Gers, deliberately left in the shadows for a long time and then incompletely treated, deserved further investigation. Beyond the contributions on the end of the Jäger hauptmann, the contribution shed useful light on the structure of the German body responsible in the Gers for the repression of Resistance fighters: the Jägerkommandos which were behind most of the arrests made in the Gers during the most intense period at the end of the Occupation. Floureto members – and other spectators who came out of curiosity – were able to ask questions, not only to Henri Calhiol, but also to Elian and Xavier Da Silva, who came with the original portrait of the German officer, recovered after the Battle of L'Isle-Jourdain. Another exciting afternoon.
The next Floureto meeting is set for Saturday December 7, always at 2 p.m., again at the Grand Angle cinema in Fleurance, for a screening around the film Louise Violet, and the subject of teachers in the countryside at the end of the 19th century.
