La face cachée de la résistance – Seconde Guerre Mondiale – Maquis – Documentaire Histoire MG

Fierté de la Résistance française pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, le maquis a fortement aidé à combattre le IIIe Reich. Dès 1943, ils sont des milliers de jeunes hommes et de femmes à entrer dans la clandestinité pour lutter contre le régime de Vichy et l’envahisseur nazl.

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Pourtant, ces groupes de résistants, qui rassemblaient aussi bien des nationalistes de droite que des communistes, n’étaient pas tous exemplaires. En effet, à côté de l’imagerie traditionnelle, il existe une autre histoire, bien plus sombre, du maquis, dans laquelle pillages, vols…

Réalisateur : Raphaël Rouyer
© MORGANE PRODUCTION – 2018

The maquis. This word summarizes on its own, the glorious story of the French resistance during the Second World War. As of 1943, thousands of young men and women clandestinely enter the fight against the occupier. Known as the Maquis, These unsung heroes will play a crucial role in the liberation of France.

The Maquis made sure that the french people were more than just spectators in the Liberation of their territories. They also represent the French people who stood up against the occupation. We have all read about their achievements in history textbooks. We all feel like we know them. And yet,

Like any other legend, the legend of the French Maquis has its own dark side that is deliberately hidden from the public to preserve its reputation. Because it is the story of unscrupulous criminals and bandits. A story composed of shameful looting and executions.

Under the guise of protecting the population, some went too far by over-requisitioning, looting, and massacring certain populations. These criminals, who were pretending to be for authentic resisters, have thus formed what were called false maquis. But in addition to these false maquis, Maquis Noirs have also saw the light.

This time it was real maquis infiltrated by groups of outlaws who were looking for a cover To commit their acts with total impunity. Under cover of the maquis, they are going to practice activities that are fully criminal. The line between true and false Maquis was sometimes so vague

That post-war justice was facing several difficulties in participating in the sometimes resounding matters. There had been an inquiry in the National Assembly if the man dressed up as a resistance fighter was in reality a killer. Who were the members of these fakes Maquis or Maquis Noirs? Where were they located?

And how did they operate? More than 70 years after these events, This is the truth about these criminals who thrived behind the Maquis. In January 1943, the battle is raging on the Eastern Front. For over six months, German troops collide to relentless resistance from the Soviets in front of Stalingrad.

Marshal von Paulus’ Sixth Army was surrounded and trapped, and so must capitulate on February 2, 1943. This defeat marked a turning point in the Second World War. We now know that the Wehrmacht is now vulnerable. We can beat it. It will be a severe defeat.

For the first time, the German army retreats and surrenders its arms. More than 91,000 German soldiers were captured, including a marshal. It was more than a defeat. It’s a humiliation for the Nazis. A disaster whose consequences were felt even in France. It was maybe the first time

That Germany feels like it might lose the war. All forces were surely mobilized in Germany, but also, all forces of the occupied countries, including France. The occupation authorities will ask the French authorities in Vichy to provide a French workforce for this war effort.

In order to obey the Fuhrer, the Vichy government establishes Compulsory Work Services, the famous STO, only two weeks after the capitulation of the Nazis in Stalingrad. This law requires all young people aged between 21 and 23 to work in Germany to fuel the war efforts of the Reich.

Without it, the French Maquis might have never existed. The measure is extremely unpopular within the public People were reluctant to send their youth in Germany, because it is far away, and it is the enemy but also because the situation in Germany was becoming critical

At that time, because of regular bombings. In a way, the STO law is therefore the founding act of the Maquis. Because all those who refuse to be sent to Germany have no choice. They have to disappear. We notice the development of a very broad movement. It’s known as

Movement of refractories, those who refuse to go to Germany. And their number quickly elevates to several tens of thousands. So, some young french people were evaporated. They did not go to Germany but stayed in France on the occupied territory and vanished.

According to Vichy, these people who were resisting to the STO are in an illegal situation and must face prison terms. But the vast majority of the French population supports this movement. Every effort is deployed to help these young French people live in hiding.

The population supports these people by hiding them, providing them food, hosting them, by providing them with employment, and fake papers. Until some of the officials in the Vichy administration try to sabotage the STO. The refractory phenomenon quickly revealed the necessity

To create makeshift camps in the most remote areas of France, where the authorities do not venture. What to do with these people? What to do with these resisters? They are there, some want to fight, others just want to hide. The Resistance will agree to supervise these camps of resisters

And to turn them into Maquis, into combatant Maquis. Thanks to the support of the Resistance, the Maquis was born. It is a bargain, indeed, for the French Resistance. Suddenly, there is a workforce that can be transformed into resistance fighters. So, they will equip them, train them, and teach them.

The French Resistance will start creating an army of Maquis fighters so they are able to liberate the territory with the help of the Allies, when the time is right. But before fighting the occupation troops or the Vichy regime, The Maquis must find enough supplies to survive hiding.

And for that, they have no choice. They are forced to steal food and equipment in nearby villages. Maquis need to exist and to live depending on the population around them. So they will start by making petty thefts. They consist of thefts of individuals in farms, businesses looting,

Looting of Tobacco offices, or thefts of power boards in town halls. They happen daily in the sectors where the Maquis grow. They have to go for coal because they have to find money to finance their activities. During this troubled period, The real Maquis survive by increasing the number of requisitions.

Requisitions that, in times of peace, would be considered as looting. The population is sometimes compassionate with these crimes, because those who would be in the context of normal law judged as criminals, may now be considered Robin Hoods or bandits honor

That is, they are violating the law, but to re-establish a just order. So, morally, it is not reprehensible. The robberies of the Maquis are therefore rarely denounced by the population. Very quickly, groups of delinquents and criminals understand that they can take advantage of the situation. To commit their acts in full impunity,

All they have to do is impersonate Maquis. And they are the ones who will create the first false maquis in 1943. It’s pure banditry in the name of patriotism and resistance to Vichy and the Germans. Since the Maquis do not have a uniform and they are not a regular army,

It is very easy to usurp their identity. In fact, it is enough to have a gun, to put on an armband, and to say “send maquis”. That creates confusion. One of these fake maquis scoured the Limoges region for several months. It’s the Jacquet gang. This gang was formed in December 1943 under

The leadership of the brothers Jacquet, Lucien and Jean. They are young people who already have a criminal record, who were in prison in Lille for theft and concealment. They are petty criminals. The Jacquet brothers are in Limoges during the exodus of 1940.

They move there and find work in the Bernardo porcelain factories. It is where they meet their future accomplices, Paul Mazieu, former farm worker, who is also a notorious delinquent. René Lesport, age 19, is the youngest in the gang. And finally Marcel Doué, nicknamed “the Alsatian”. They started they acts

At the end of 1943, at the beginning in Limoges itself, because they are trying to rob shops or clothing warehouses. It’s more like petty robberies. They’re stealing some food and bicycles to make ends meet. They really are petty crimes. However they quickly realize that the situation is

Quite complicated, because they are in the city, and the risk of falling in the hands of a police patrol is always there. So the members of the Jacket gang focus their looting on the outskirts of town, at the beginning of 1944.

As soon as they have a little more equipment especially when they will manage to have more guns, they’re going to have more ambitions. Their preferred targets are isolated villages. They land there in the middle of the night and always act according the same operating mode. They go to private homes,

Mainly farmers, sometimes retailers, saying they are “sent by the Maquis”. Once they are in the place, they start the pure and simple plunder. They are going to ask the peasants to donate food, ration cards, but mostly everything that can be negotiable like jewelry, gold, titles, etc.

These repeated night raids are very lucrative for the Jacquet gang. Their amount is quickly worth hundreds of thousands of francs. To the point that these lootings end up getting the attention of the police. A police investigation will be conducted and shows that they are they are always the same men.

The Jaquet brothers are fairly easy to spot because they are very tall. At the time, in the region, one of the two was more than 1.80m tall. The Jaquet brothers are very quickly suspected, so the police are missing evidence to stop them because their victims hesitate to denounce them.

The investigation of the Jaquet gang is difficult for the policemen, since it is that kind of cases where the victims do not always file a complaint, or testify, simply because these victims are in total confusion. They don’t know if the authors of robberies or looting are resisters or not.

For their part, the Jacquet brothers and their accomplices Accomplices feel that the situation is gradually more complex. They then do everything they can to muddy the waters as much as possible. They are targeting more and more people who could be targets of the Maquis.

They are choosing as a target farmers who are traffickers, militiamen, more like people favorable to the collaboration of Vichy. That maintains a kind of myth, that they are resisters, when they are only criminals and that they never had any connection with resistance. To stop spreading doubts, the Jaquet gang attacks even

Two organizations serving the regime of Vichy in the heart of Limoges. By making sure to properly stage these misdeeds in both cases. They’re going to leave little butterflies, small leaflets where they will write “Long live de Gaulle, Long live the Maquis”

So, very clearly, now, there is a desire to sign the acts committed and orientate the research towards the Maquis. This strategy was working perfectly for several months. By pretending to be resisters, the members of the Jacquet gang enjoy a relative impunity. But in April 1944,

A banal anonymous testimony changes the situation abruptly. They are going to be reported. They’re going to report to the police that individuals live under a false identity. Initially, the police intervenes for simple identity checks. But the numerous stolen objects found at the home of the suspects betray them.

It’s the end of the activities of Jacquet gang criminals. These members will face trials in two years in December 1946 before the conferences of Haute-Vienne. After investigation, the accusations were overwhelming. One murder, 59 assaults and armed robbery. The trial of the Jacquet brothers,

Is extremely important because that’s when we’ll be able to distinguish real resistance from those who usurped the titles. All of this raises a certain number of problems because obviously, one of the strategies of the Jacquet brothers to defend themselves, is to impersonate resisters by saying” Yes, but we were attacking

Collaborators, militiamen, and traffickers.” Despite the statements of the Jacquet brothers and their accomplices, no official maquis will recognize the gang and the two brains of the gang will be sentenced to death. It is a verdict that is considered in French law, of extraordinary harshness.

In the eyes of post-war justice, the fact that vulgar criminals dared to impersonate Maquis has severe circumstance, because unlike the real Maquis, these bands were not acting to finance resistance actions, but to get rich personally. The Jacquet brothers are therefore executed on 19 June 1947.

And the other Maquis members of the gang are sent to prison. The Jacquet gang affair is emblematic of the false maquis sequel since all the ingredients of fake Maquis are there. We have a criminal association with no connection with the Resistance,

But will try to use the image of the Resistance to commit criminal activities in an area where the presence of real maquis is known, which is the department of Haute Vienne. This story of the Jacquet gang is far from being an exception. Similar cases are multiplying

In all regions where real Maquis are seeing the light. Sometimes the line between banditry and resistance is even more fuzzy, especially when the real Maquis are infiltrated by thugs who are looking for coverage to operate. This is the story of the Maquis Noirs.

They are Maquis with at the same time elements of the real resistance and elements of rather criminal activity. The incredible story of the Maquis Lecoz illustrates this phenomenon perfectly. It all started at the beginning of 1944, in Indre et Loire, when a mysterious military doctor

Settled in Loches, 40 kilometers from south of Tours. So this guy arrives in this period when there are a lot of medical problems, so having one more doctor is more like something positive for the population. They called him to people’s homes to take care of the sick.

And some were even delighted with his services. So he had very quickly a good reputation as a doctor. Everyone in the region know this man as Doctor Lecause and no one doubts his integrity. He says that he is a resistance fighter wanted by the Gestapo,

Wanted by the Germans, and therefore he had to leave his region of origin, the West, to come and take refuge in Loche. In June 1944, when Dr. Lecoz decided to create his own Maquis, just after the Allies disembarked in Normandy, Those who trust him welcome this initiative.

Lecoz brings together a small group who settles in the forest of Loches. He took on the rank of captain. One of Lecoz’s strengths is to very quickly requisition vehicles. And by requisitioning vehicles, his maquis can be mobile and develop requisitions in many sectors, to be seen in Loches.

What they want is to be seen, as champs. He is a Maquis that we see. Lecoz seduces a number of Loch residents. He gives the impression that he is effective. He is visible and effective. The Maquis Lecoz impresses the local population, especially since he gives himself to a relentless collab hunt.

Lecoz will build his reputation on the collab hunt, which is probably way easier than chasing Germans. He doesn’t want to go too deep. If someone is qualified as a collaborator rumor has it, he’s a collaborator. And that’s it. We have found one of the last members of the Maquis Lecoz and he confirms.

The collab hunt was like the hunt for militiamen. We shoot. Captain Lecoz’s reputation is rising up a notch at the beginning of the month of August 1944. The men of the Maquis Lecoz will have clashes with the Germans. Each time, these clashes are real victories for the Maquis,

Because the Maquis Lecoz first kills Germans, takes prisoners, and above all recovers military equipment, this makes it possible to further strengthen the power of the Maquis, while having only very few losses. Building on his exploits, Captain Lecoz has everything to be the ideal resister.

In fact, it is for this reason that he gets the attention of the services of Free France of General de Gaulle. The Maquis is also recognized by London. He benefits from airdrops. All the young men in this area who want to join a Maquis, automatically go to him.

It’s not a choice, it’s logical. The comrades and I thought that it was official. There was nothing else to do. If we wanted to go to a Maquis to show patriotism, It was necessary to find a Maquis recognizable by people who run Free France.

For Lecoz, this recognition of London is a consecration. In a few weeks, the Maquis, made up of a handful of men, turns into a small army of about 200 Maquis. But it’s really on August 16, 1944, that Captain Lecoz experiences his heyday. He learned that the Germans had just left Loche.

And where the other Maquis are a bit hesitant, because they don’t know whether the Germans are going to come back or not, He immediately decides leading his men to return to Loche. A triumphant, extraordinary entry. We were welcomed in Loche in an extraordinary way, with shouts “Long live de Gaulle!

Long live Lecoz!” It was implausible. It’s an atmosphere. Paris is liberated. We all have these images in mind. It is the same at the Loche. Blue, white, red flags, gunshots in the air in the middle of a population absolutely unleashed, thrilled. That’s it, it’s liberation, we are free.

Carried by the ambient euphoria, Captain Lecoz strong enough to order a true purification operation in the city. The men of Lecoz face several arrests in the city. People are being mistreated. He cut the hair of three collaborators with a swastika on the forehead.

By the end of the afternoon, Lecoz brings together all the people He arrested in the central square of Loches. He then improvised a popular tribunal. At that moment, nobody dares to question his authority as an authentic maquis. There was a crowd, and Loches watching with curiosity

These people he knew, friends among them. He brings a guy he has recognized out of line He is a Police inspector, whose name is Inspector Eco. In front of the dumbfounded population, Lecoz accuses the officer of being a collaborator and has him executed on the spot. What we’ll learn later

Is that in fact, Inspector Recaux was mainly responsible, by the prefect of the time, of an investigation on Lecoz to try to understand who he really was, and reveal his true identity. Certainly, Lecoz knew that. The crowd is surely unaware all of this investigation. But what did Inspector Recaux discover?

Why did Lecoz want him dead at all costs? The Loches people will know it shortly. Meanwhile, Lecoz and his resistance fighters are increasing the number of arbitrary arrests. Everyone distrusts everyone during these few days because we don’t we never know, we can be arrested without knowing why.

We don’t give you a reason, It’s not worth it. You have been reported, so you go to the dungeon. The famous historic dungeon that stands above Loches will serve again as prison, but this time to put on some brave Loches people who will find themselves interned by

The gracious Captain Lecoz who is now the master of the city. Even if the tyrannical behavior of Lecoz is beginning to worry some Loches people, the captain is untouchable. Nobody dares to challenge publicly his authority. But four days later, the situation is changing drastically. The Germans will come back in force.

I think we’re talking about a thousand of men, if I remember correctly, who are going to surround the city and there will be extremely hard fights. Lecoz and his men are forced to fall back. For the people of Loch abandoned to their fate, it’s a consternation.

The violence that happened in Loches on August 16, 1944 went badly. Some people are starting to untie on the fact that what Lecoz might not be the resister he claims to be. And that is only the beginning. In the days following his escape from Loches

The famous Captain Lecoz seems to be completely metamorphosing. He’s going to lead a pretty crazy life, a life of great lord with gargantuan meals, and completely crazy evenings. Lecoz behaves a bit like a man with no faith or law, that goes from castle to castle, and violates every time the people it hosts.

The drift of captain Lecoz is no longer a secret for anyone. The population then discovers with amazement a man with a dual personality. It’s even worse than that. Yes, it’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There is the Lecoz of the day,

The maquis who likes to show off, and wears the uniform well. And then there is the Lecoz of the night who has tours that he presents as purification rounds, but in reality, are more like lootings. The population suddenly realizes that these looting and exactions would

Have actually started since the birth of the Maquis Lecoz. But his victims were too afraid to report him. He stole everything he could. He stole animals, he stole paintings, he stole hunting guns. He stole silverware. What will be a real war treasure. In the process, the Lochois discovered

With horror a man capable of unheard of violence. He was sick. Besides, he was taking drugs, a lot of drugs. That man, on drugs, behaving badly, was capable of anything. That’s how he’s going to kill people in violent crises that are totally unexplainable. And above all, he is a loaded alcoholic.

He is a guy who spends his time drinking in a crazy way. In the eyes of the population, Lecoz went in a few weeks from a respected maquis to a vulgar criminal. And on October 23, 1944, shortly after final liberation

Of the Loches region, the new authorities decide to have him arrested. And now, the investigators are going to be shocked because they will discover that the one who was a resistance fighter wanted by the Germans, the doctor, had nothing to do with all of this.

In fact, the captain Lecoz does not exist. It is a false identity. The man who hides behind the face of a maquis is called Georges Gaston Raoul Dubosc. He is 43 years old and he is originally from Calvados. But above all, he is a hardened criminal. He has been convicted about 30 times

Before the war, for robberies, for scams. He passed all three quarters of his life in prison. And in 1940, when the Germans arrived in Angers, He was already in the Angers prison, for the murder of a shoemaker, for murder, quite frankly. And the Germans will release him, provided that he collaborates with them.

To escape justice, Georges Dubosc agreed to become a Gestapo agent. And so, he’s going to serve as a sheep. The sheep is the one we introduce in a cell with, for example, resisters, and impersonates a resister and who in the end learns things to be

Passed to his German masters who then make raids, acts, arrests, deportations, and shootings… Before arriving in Loches, Georges Dubosc has infiltrated several networks around Angers, then Brittan, but never under his real name. He will have at least ten identities. Doctor Jean, Lecoz,

Names of German origin, Stein, Steiner, names of Breton origin. He’s going to be called Lozard, for example, things like that. He is a chameleon character. He is a manipulative character, an actor who has a certain talent to be credible, at least provisionally.

At the end of the investigation, Georges Dubosc, aka Lecoz, is indicted for illegal wearing of uniforms, for looting, and especially, for 18 murders. When his trial began in Angers on the 16th of October 1945, the false Maquis was seriously ill. He therefore appeared in Angers on a stretcher.

He is nothing but a shadow of himself. He’s practically a skeleton. He is unrecognizable. He lost a lot of weight. He can’t stand up anymore. Despite his condition, Georges Dubosc does not benefit from any clemency. He was executed on May 14, 1946.

The story of Captain Lecoz is emblematic in the way in which some opportunists knew how to take advantage of this context of liberation to integrate resistance, to lead the Maquis, not for patriotic purposes, but for individual personal purposes. Lecoz is a very prototype of

These Maquis Noirs that may have existed at the time of the liberation. Because he mixed actions of resistance and common crimes, the Maquis Noir Lecoz would have discredited all the fighters. He cast the opprobrium on young men who had joined this Maquis believing that they were going to fight for France.

They fought for France, they were genuine patriots. But they fell, in the hands of “the wrong boss at the wrong time”. In 1943, the Resistance is aware of this considerable power of false Maquis like the Jacquet gang or Maquis noirs like Lecoz. They are a terrible threat for all clandestine networks.

It is true that uncontrolled actions, fake Maquis or uncontrolled elements, represent a danger, because they can cut them off the people However, in this type of war, the support of the population is essential. To prove to the population that fake Maquis and Maquis Noirs have nothing to do with resistance,

The real Maquis are mercilessly repressing any act of banditry in their area. When the Maquis stopped a bandit, a fake maquis, they went to a village square, asking the population to reunite, they execute the bandit by explaining to the population the objective

Of this maneuver, to say “the real Maquis is suppressing banditry and don’t encourage it at all.” But this local repression is not enough. To avoid amalgam between real and fake Maquis, the Resistance must absolutely find a way to stand out, to prove to all French people that their motivations are only patriotic.

So, to mark people’s minds, they decide to organize gigantic communication operations on occasion of commemorations of November 11. November 11 marks the victory of France against Germany in 1918. The Germans forbade celebrating this date. So resistance will make November 11 a symbolic day for organizing protests.

The most important, the most spectacular and the riskiest of these protests takes place on November 11, 1943 in Oyonnax, in Ain. These images are an exceptional document. They were shot by the Maquis themselves. It’s the only testimony of these events. The city is under lockdown.

The men are coming, trucks unload and then, they scroll in columns behind their officers. For about an hour, nearly 200 Maquisards take full control of this city under the dumbfounded gaze of the population. Now, we are far from the clandestine army of odds and ends.

We are really in for something very military, supervised, and structured. It’s not just military folklore Because it’s the need to demonstrate that the Resistance is really an army, a home army. This show of force is a total success, to the point that in Vichy, we are worried about the enthusiasm

Of the population for these Maquis. It is becoming urgent to discredit. To achieve this, the collaborationist regime put on a very simple plan. Since the French people sometimes fail to distinguish real Maquis from fake ones, You just need to strengthen the amalgam between the two.

Vichy is trying to demonstrate, through criminalization of the resistance, that the Maquisard, is never just one bandit who gave himself a patriotic alibi. We know that the idea, is to frighten the French population so they will not work with these resistance fighters, but denounce them. The main architect of this campaign

Of denigration is the Secretary of State for information, Philippe Henriot. It is cruel to fight against our brothers. It is cruel to face civil war, but it is necessary to suppress merciless plunder, banditry and murder. This aggressive propaganda is accompanied on the ground with a strategy of destabilization organized by the militia,

The paramilitary fascist organization of the Vichy regime. The militia will develop in some territories what are called actions of provocation, by engaging in violent actions to try and blame it on the Maquis with the same goal, to ensure that the population stands out from the Maquis.

After the damage caused by fake maquis, or the Maquis Noirs, these discrediting operations carried out by the militia bear a terrible cost to resistance. For the Nazis, it’s now or never to give the coup de grace. They hope to achieve this by creating what we call call contremaquis.

To understand what it is about, You have to immerse yourself in history. Everything is happening in Sedan, at the beginning of August 1944. The Gestapo then formed a shock group. of a dozen French collaborators. The French who chose the Reich are individuals who have joined very early the Nazi.

So they are French who are Nazified. The command of this group is given to two gestapos, Pierre Marie Paoli and Roger Picot. Pierre Marie Paoli is a former member of the Gestapo in Bourges. He dealt very hard blows to the Cher Resistance and he is even

In the rank of Chief Sergeant in the German army. Picot is the thick bully of Béris not very smart, the loyal soldier, who doesn’t really have freedom of initiative. The rest of the band is composed of Francists, or members Of the collaborationist party

By Marcel Bucar, the one who loved to be presented as the French Mussolini. Among them, two characters will particularly be known for the violence of their acts. Balot and Rutz. Jean Noël Balot is an activist from the francist party, a violent, brutal individual, who is nicknamed the hunchback because he

Was small in size and probably inflicted with a physical deformity. This nickname will later give its name to the gang. And the other was a former boxer from Strasbourg who was called Charles Rutz. And who had won a few titles of fame in the 30s.

The Hunchback’s band therefore creates a false Maquis. Intended to lull distrust of local resistance fighters for better unmask them later on. They set their base camp a few kilometers in the north of Sedan. They are going to settle in a hood called the hoods of la Hatrelle.

They’re going to move there and get help From the mayor, the local industrialist who will help them since all of these people think they’re dealing with real resisters. Resistance fighters were sent by the Allies to organize fields of air drops to recover weapons

Air dropped by the Allies, but also to harass Germans who leaning towards Germany. For several days, Paoli and his men mingle closely to the local population. They do everything to gain trust of the young people from the village. They go door to door and above all,

They make the bistros to listen to what they are saying. And this is were Pierre Marie Paoli benefited from his Gestapo experience in Bourges. He knew how to get little tips from the Maquis unfortunately a bit too talkative. To gain the trust of the population and especially local resistance fighters,

The Hunchback band will even simulate a raid against the German army. they are going to set up a real intoxication operation since they will attack a German truck driven by one of their accomplices, a militiaman. But in the eyes of the local population, this attack shows that they are real resisters.

The strategy is paying off. A few days later, a few Maquis fall into the trap. They make contact with resistance fighters. They leave each other also take part in the game. They seemed to be okay. Four young people from the region Join the Camp of Faux Maquis of the Hunchback band.

A fatal error, because on August 28, 1944, The Hunchback and his acolytes decide to eliminate all the resisters that they were able to identify. Paoli and his gang’s punitive exhibition caused a carnage. This bloody day begins by the execution of the four youth members who had just joined the camp.

Then, they will join the village where are they will kill the people who helped and assisted them in the installation of the Maquis. And then, leaving for Sedan, they will stop again to see other young people who had asked for their admission to the Maquis and they will kill them on the spot.

And the next day they start again in the nearby village. But this time, With uncovered face and accompanied by 200 soldiers of the German army. It was the Germans who gave the orders, and the French who did the job. So it’s them, the hunchback gang,

With Paoli in the lead, who were managing the situation. They are going to arrest everyone with whom they had contacts in this village. They spotted the leaders of the resistance network. They know their address. What are they doing? They are going there. Paoli and his men are looking

For the village doctor, Doctor François. They go to his home, but on site, they only find his wife and daughter. And now, there is an outbreak of violence worthy of a horror movie, since the famous hunchback and Pierre Paoli are going to torture Madame François, the wife of the wanted doctor.

They were knocking louder and louder in front of their daughter’s eyes, Little Nicole, who was then 12 years old. Pierre Marie Paoli, exasperated by Madame François’ silence shot him in the head. This summary execution is only the first in a long series. These are horror cases,

As what the members of the Gestapo used to do. In the days that follow, the Hunchback gang flees to Germany, leaving 19 victims behind. The members were stopped by the English at the end of the war and are delivered to the French. Their trial began in June 1946.

Only Roger Picot, who succeeded to flee, escaped the trial. The debates are quite tense and according to press reports, the defendants don’t necessarily have low profile. They will all assume their act until the last minute, which says a lot about the philosophical base of these French people who had chosen Hitler. Unsurprisingly,

Pierre Marie Paoli, Jean Noël Ballereau and Charles Rutz are sentenced to death and then executed in the days that follow. These false resistance trials, like those from the Hunchback gang, Captain Lecoz or the Jacquet gang, will follow one another for two years after the German surrender. But in the 1950s,

A new kind of case which also concern the Maquis, make its appearance in front the French courts. These cases will tarnish the image of the Resistance. One of them has in particular made the headlines of the month of December 1953. At the center of this new case,

A certain Georges Guingoin, a man supposedly above all suspicion. Guingoin was an authentic resistance fighter, an authentic Maquis, It was often the first to crack down fake Maquis in his sector, those who indulged to banditry or to plunder. So why is justice so interested in him?

What exactly are we accusing him of? Guingoin, in reality, is accused of having chaired a kind of war council with lieutenants to eliminate Korean peasants, the Parichous, who would have known about the exactions of his maquis. Did Guingoin really execute this peasant couple? If so, for what reasons?

And above all, what are these alleged exactions to which the Maquis have delivered himself? Guingouin would be responsible for Thousands of executions in Haute Vienne, they would have indulged in eliminating political opponents, etc. A false resister who would be guilty thousands of arbitrary executions?

The case promises to be sensational and the top headlines of the regional and national press get hold of it immediately. In December 1953, Le Populaire du Centre even publishes a daily passage entitled Limousin, Land of Terror. At the time, it was Roland Dumas who defends Georges Guingois.

He remembers the incredible media outpouring against his client. The case is even mentioned at the highest summit in the state. There had been an arrest of the National Assembly on the fact That a man impersonated a registrant and that he was actually a killer. Well, that was the general theme.

And it spread against Ginguin. Even before his trial started, Georges Guingouin is presumed guilty in the eyes of public opinion. Worse, he is perceived as the symbol the excesses of the Resistance. They caricatured the character to the point of saying “He’s a highway bandit.” That was it.

He was alone in the face of the unleashed. To understand this relentlessness, you have to dive back into the context of politics of the time. At the beginning of the 1950s, The Cold War between the United States and their allies in the Soviet Bloc has just hit all of Europe.

The fear of an invasion of the East troups is on everyone’s mind. Communists are top public enemies. However, Georges Guingoin is not not just any Maquis. He’s a former FTP, Franks Shooters and Partisans, in other words, a communist. A whole discourse is developing at the moment of the Cold War

Based on the fact that FTPs did not pursue patriotic goals at the time of liberation, but were pursuing revolutionary goals, eliminating opponents policies, taking power. To say that they are criminals, there is only one step, and some step it quite cheerfully. Through the Guingois trial,

All the Maquis communists are being singled out. Public opinion demands justice to set an example. The Guingoin case, shows a willingness to reach a fairly prestigious chef of the Resistance and therefore to start the aura of the Resistance by attacking a character who is quite iconic, after all.

Companion of Liberation, liberator of Limoges, leader of the Maquis. This hate against Georges Guingois wins many layers of society. It is particularly virulent in law enforcement circles. And on the night of February 22, 1953, while incarcerated in prison of Brive, Guingoin is wildly assaulted by his prison guards.

He is almost left for dead in his cell. In reality, it is an assassination attempt. It’s because he was a chef of the Maquis, because he had the nation all against him, that we tried to kill him. The episode is very embarrassing for justice, who decides to put Guingoin on probation.

And in the weeks that follow, the lawyers are finally on the offensive. We notice that the accusations of Guingoin, may be unfair. He is not the dreadful man that they say he is. And so now, the opinion is indeed turning around. And from that moment on,

Even if the case will stay in courtrooms for a while, we can clearly see that this case is slowly losing importance. Because the folder is empty, with nothing in it. There is nothing very consistent. Worse. We soon realize that this whole thing is only an organized conspiracy

By former officials of the Vichy regime. The two policemen who built the file had followed Guingoin during the war. They couldn’t get him. Guingoin was smarter than them. So now is the perfect opportunity, Of course, to have the head of Guingoin. You can incriminate him, in common law cases also.

What are the people asking for? The same people have simply resumed trials and instrumentalized Guingoin, as they did prior to the liberation. They had worked for the Germans, for Vichy. And they were working for the Republic, but against the same character, Guingoin. After years of procedures,

Georges Guingois finally gets a dismissal pronounced in February 1959. But his heroic journey will remain forever sullied by this case. This Guingoin case, will give birth to a black legend of Georges Guingoin. Georges Guingoin, the criminal gang leader, of dubious morality. Even today,

The black legend of Guingoin continues sometimes to persist with people he accused of committing thousands of executions, Where his executions did not exceed 15 people. So we are very far from the bath of blood that will be presented later. Like Guingouin, many former communist resistance fighters

Will also be the subject of a relentless judicial system by former collaborators. There was no real purification within the justice system, within the police of the Liberation. And very often, at the end of the 1940s, on the judges’ side, or on the police commissioners’ side,

We find men who were already there under the occupation and who undeniably have accounts to be settled with former resistance fighters. They are going to use their functions to continue the fight and therefore continue the fight against resistance by seeking to criminalize former resistance fighters,

While involving them in matters of common law. The trials of the former Maquis Communists, and the Maquis Noirs et de False Maquis illustrate the difficulty to sort out the real and false resistances. That’s probably what explains that we have long preferred hide this historical reality.

But today, more than 70 years after the the Second World War, It is now possible to differentiate true resistants and criminal gangs. There is a real border between the real Maquis and the False Maquis and besides, the Resistance, the authentic Maquis chefs, are far from encouraging looting and banditry

And have always sought to combat and to suppress it. Despite recent research on the Maquis noirs and fake Maquis, it is still difficult to assess precisely the extent of the phenomenon. But these stories will long haunt the French countryside.