Esvres pays vibrant tribute to twelve resistance fighters arrested by the Gestapo in 1944

Saturday November 23, 2024, Esvres honored the memory of twelve Esvres resistance fighters, victims of Nazi cruelty in 1944.

The ceremony, requested by the mayor, Jean-Christophe Gassot and the members of the municipal council, widely desired and approved by many residents, took on an intense emotional character during a very formal event.

About fifty veteran flag bearers stood on either side of the stele, and on one side, armed military personnel from the air base, as well as senior officers and medal-winning ranks.

Strong words from Maryvonne Bourreau

Sub-prefect Anaïs Aït-Mansour, chief of staff of the prefect of Indre-et-Loire, chaired the ceremony, surrounded by an audience of elected officials, including the mayor of Tours, the deputy and the senator of the constituency .

The harmony of the Musical Union of Esvres opened the ceremony with The Song of the Partisans et The Song of the Marshes.

Maryvonne Bourreau, eldest daughter of the teacher and captain Joseph Bourreau, leader of the Esvres resistance group, was the first to speak: “I want to first set the record straight. In January 1944, the Gestapo roundup was the consequence of the irresponsible, provocative behavior of a wanted young man, who wanted to marry with great pomp. » He provoked the arrest, in Esvres, of the abbot Georges Lhermite, the mayor Auguste Noyant, the postman Hilaire Baron, the grocer Georges Hodebert, who were deported.

“A Trap” by the Gestapo

“In the summer of 1944, she continued, it involved the arrest, upon denunciation, of around thirty members of the resistance group led by my father… While they were to receive weapons by airdrop and hide them, the Gestapo, informed by two traitors, set a trap into which the men fell one by one. »

For his part, Jean-Christophe Gassot spoke of the people, the suffering, the traces left by this tragedy: “The passive but useful resistance of Auguste Noyant, the years of smuggler of Abbé Lhermite, the sorrows of hard-hit families, the long years of silence after the war…”

With him, students from the Joseph-Bourreau school and the Georges-Brassens college made the call for the dead, The Marseillaise sounded, the officials laid wreaths at the foot of the stele. Then Odette Sard-Dupuy, 100 years old, several family members of whom were arrested by the Nazis, unveiled the commemorative plaque.