A major deployment, this Friday, November 29, near the war memorial, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of one of their own, Marc Denis Sureau, a native of Bréville who died at the age of 44 in the death camp infirmary of Ellrich (Germany), that same day, in 1944.
“Because if the gendarmerie is in the present, looking to the future, it does not forget the past, nor its own people and the sacrifices they made in the exercise of their mission,” recalls Jean-Marc Gagé .
“Pay tribute to this man, an example of courage and determination.”
Commander of the Cognac brigade, he led, surrounded by more than twenty standard bearers, this ceremony at which were also present around fifteen members of the family of Marc Denis Sureau, some Brévillois, and, on the side of the officials, Mayor Mehdi Kalaï, departmental councilor Florence Péchevis, the Prefect's chief of staff, Dahalani M'houmadi and senator François Bonneau.
Helping Jewish children
“A very beautiful and important ceremony, which allows us to pay tribute to this man, an example of courage and determination,” welcomed Cédric De Penfentenyo de Kervereguin, at the time of a closing speech given in the premises of the old school, followed by a friendly drink. “Also a break from the hectic daily life of the gendarmes for a moment of reflection on the meaning of our commitment.”
That of Marc Denis Sureau, born on June 10, 1900 in the hamlet of La Cabane, son of a shoemaker and second of three brothers, was total from his admission into the gendarmerie in 1925, until his death. Originally a farmer, this father of three children started in the 12e gendarmerie legion, then serving in the Legion of Morocco (1931-1933) and, in 1939, in the Dordogne gendarmerie company, then based in Rouffignac.
Marc Denis Sureau.
Repro CL
It was there that he joined the first group of maquis formed in the department, and participated in meetings with regional and local resistance leaders. With the agreement of the mayor of Rouffignac, he warned all the young people affected by the compulsory labor service (STO) and produced negative reports.
Marc Denis Sureau was also part of the organization to help Jewish children, the OSE (Children's Relief Work), a commitment from which two of them will benefit in particular. He was arrested on March 31, 1944 during a reprisal operation and destruction of the village carried out by the SS Brehmer division, like 62 other men under 50 and his fellow gendarmes, transferred to Périgueux to be interrogated and tortured.
Most will be released, 16 will be deported to different concentration camps. Including him and three other gendarmes who all died during their internment following the deprivation and mistreatment they endured.
Marc Denis Sureau will be cremated at the Dora camp, his ashes will not be returned. He was posthumously cited in the Order of the Army with the award of the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 and appointed to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor on September 19, 1947.
He is one of the 12,000 gendarmes who engaged in the shadow battles, a quarter of the force at the time. Among them, 338 gendarmes of all ranks were shot by the occupying troops, 453 died in the camps, 350 during military operations.
“Among these latter there are surely other Charentais that we will also honor. Our research service is working there as it did to find Marc Denis Sureau,” indicates Colonel De Penfentenyo de Kervereguin.
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