the essential
On the occasion of his 101st birthday, the patriarch of Monclar, a Gers village of 225 souls, confides in a funny anecdote, typically Gers, from his time in the Compulsory Labor Service (STO), under the yoke of the Nazis.
Gaston Castagnet celebrates his 101st birthday, on good feet, good eyes, intact memory and a facetious smile. He is one of the elders from whom Henri Calhiol, member of the Archaeological and Historical Society of Gers, found new materials for his research. He was thus able to collect the confidences of the patriarch of Monclar-sur-Losse on various events experienced during the Occupation, and his authorization to publish them.
Gaston Castagnet was born in 1923. Under the Occupation, while he was an agricultural worker in Viozan, he was requisitioned for the STO, the compulsory labor service created by Vichy to meet the demand of the Germans, in search of labor. of work. Here is our Gersois assigned to the Atlantic Wall.
Supervised trip
One fine day, without any real explanation, he was told that he had been granted exceptional 10-day permission to return to Viozan. Not alone: he will be escorted by two German soldiers, both on the way there and on the way back.
Also read:
Who was Captain Jäger, a Nazi officer captured and executed in Gers in August 1944?
On arrival at the Gers farm, his boss tells him that he owes his permission to a piston. A notable person from Miranda, a friend of his employers, has planned a meal which will be a fitting crown to the baptism of his youngest grandson.
-Hare on the menu
In these times of shortage and ban on hunting, he needs to put hare on the menu! However, Gaston is notoriously renowned for his talents as a poacher… Our man immediately sets his snares, and the next morning, a magnificent capuchin is trapped. Mission accomplished.
The notable will come by bike (a woman's bike, Gaston remembers!) to collect his game. Gaston will then take full advantage of the remainder of his leave. On the last day, at the appointed time, German soldiers will pick up Gaston who will be escorted to the Atlantic Wall where he will return, constrained and forced, to his workstation.
The anecdote is worth its weight in gold. She is saved from oblivion, making us discover a very singular side of this terrible period when France lived under the Nazi heel.
France
