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FRENCH LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS
‘We’ve been there’: French Resistance fighters speak out against rule by the far right
In the run-up to the second round of legislative elections in France, former members of the resistance to Nazi rule are voicing their concerns over the possibility of a far-right government taking power. They urge the French people not to forget the legacy, spirit and values of the French Resistance during the Second World War.
Issued on: 04/07/2024 – 07:30
7 min
Former French Resistance members from left to right: Roger Lebranchu, Mélanie Berger-Volle, Daniel Huillier and Jean Lafaurie.
Former French Resistance members from left to right: Roger Lebranchu, Mélanie Berger-Volle, Daniel Huillier and Jean Lafaurie. © Studio graphique FMM
By:
Stéphanie TROUILLARD
Eleven days ago, Franco-Austrian Mélanie Berger-Volle was filled with immense joy when she was selected by the Loire département, or district, in central France to carry the Olympic flame due to her participation in the Resistance during the Second World War.
The 102-year-old carried the flame in a retirement home in the city of Saint-Étienne, with a broad smile on her face. “I was very happy to show that an elderly person could carry the flame. It made me so happy”, she said.
But now, three days after the far-right National Rally party (RN) came out on top in the first round of legislative elections, the former résistante spoke with a heavy heart.
Resistance fighter Melanie Berger-Volle during the torch relay at the Cité des aînés in Saint-Étienne on 22 June 2024.
Resistance fighter Melanie Berger-Volle during the torch relay at the Cité des aînés in Saint-Étienne on 22 June 2024. © Arnaud Finistre, AFP
“I’m appalled that France, which has achieved so much, is turning to the far right,” she said, adding that “I’ve no choice but to speak my mind”.
‘I’ll vote for anyone, but not for them’
Born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1921, Berger-Volle lived through one of the darkest periods in recent history.
In 1938, the then 17-year-old was forced to leave her country following the annexation of Austria by the German Reich.
“People forget that Hitler came to power legally”, Berger-Volle said.
After a brief stay in Belgium, Berger-Volle came to France where she joined the Resistance when Nazi Germany occupied the country.
Arrested in 1942 for distributing anti-Hitler leaflets to German soldiers, Berger-Volle was sent to the Saint-Michel prison in Toulouse, then to Marseille’s Baumettes Prison from where she managed to escape with help from comrades.
The young activist then continued working with the Resistance until France was liberated in 1945.
More than 80 years on, she is stunned by the rise of the far right in the country for which she fought against the Nazis.
“I’ll vote for anyone, but not for them,” Berger-Volle said, referring to the RN. “They are very intelligent. They say they’ve become like everyone else, but if you scratch the surface a bit, nothing has changed.”
In Toulon, when there was a far-right mayor, “the first thing he did was to attack [the city’s] culture, even though we can’t live without it,” Berger-Volle said.
She added that she would cast her ballot on Sunday despite her old age.
“Of course, I’ve always voted. I fought for it during the war”.
‘I don’t want us to be governed by former SS men’
On France’s west coast, Roger Lebranchu also had the honour of taking part in the Olympic torch relay on May 31, when it passed through Mont-Saint-Michel.
“I carried this symbol, which represents peace in the world and dignity between peoples. I never thought I’d do it one day”, he points out.
The former rowing champion, selected for the London Olympics in 1948, was chosen for his sporting achievements and his past as a member of the Resistance.
“I was arrested in 1943 because I wanted to reach North Africa via Spain”, Lebranchu said.
Aged merely 22, he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp and the nearby Schönebeck camp where he spent nearly two years. He escaped in April 1945 just before the Americans arrived.
After the liberation of France, Lebranchu took up rowing again and won the French championship, twice.
Now at 101 years of age, Lebranchu is worried about the future of his country.
“I was deported for acts of resistance, I don’t want us to be governed by former SS men”, he said, referring to founding members of the FN. Among them were Léon Gaultier and Pierre Bousquet, two Frenchmen who had joined the ranks of the Waffen-SS.
“When you’ve been through the hands of the SS like I have, you can expect anything,” the former Resistance fighter said, adding that he hopes that parties from “the centre will come together and stand shoulder by shoulder” against the far right.
‘Danger on our doorstep’
Meanwhile former Resistance fighter Jean Lafaurie takes a broader approach. For him, it is necessary for parties across all political divides to band together to prevent the National rally from taking power.
“We have to block this party, which is harmful to France,” he said. “When I hear people from the right or government representatives say that we can’t vote for the New Popular Front (a left-wing alliance)” because they object to certain candidates, “I say that blocking means blocking. We can discuss the details later”.
“We’re back to the same things that we’ve been through at the end of the 1930s. I think we’re in the same system,” said Lafaurie, who was shaken upon learning the election results from the first round of voting last Sunday.
“The danger is on our doorstep”, he said.
Lafaurie had already faced a very similar danger over eight decades ago.
At 20, he joined the communist resistance fighters, or FTPF (Francs-tireurs et partisans), in his home region of the Lot in southwest France.
In July 1943, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years hard labour.
Interned in the Eysses prison in Lot-et-Garonne, Lafaurie took part in a mutiny that ended in the execution of 12 prisoners and the deportation of more than 1,000 others to the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.
There, Lafaurie survived for almost a year as prisoner number 73 618 before he was liberated in April 1945, weighing just 36 kilos.
“The concentration camps were a bit like what the Nazis intended to do in the rest of the world. A world of slaves with the Nazis as the sole representatives of authority”, Lafaurie said.
Deeply marked by the experience, which is now “ingrained” in him, Lafaurie said he is dismayed to see that some people in France are suggesting trying the far right.
“We’ve been there!” Lafaurie said.
“They may have changed the way they talk to better deceive people, but the basis of the movement is still the same. Marine Le Pen has shown her ties with Putin. France is really in danger, but so is the whole of Europe at the moment”, he said.
For years, Lafaurie travelled the country to speak in schools, where he believes the history of the Second World War has not necessarily been properly passed on.
After 1945, “two generations wanted to forget the war and didn’t talk about it. We must try and reawaken this memory, but it’s not easy. We’re trying to sow small seeds with the idea that they’ll grow one day”.
‘We’re going to get through this’
96-year-old Daniel Huillier from Villard-de-Lans in the Isère department also recounts his story tirelessly to young people.
One of the last surviving resistance fighters from the Vercors Maquis, Huillier joined the Resistance at the age of 15, following in the footsteps of his father and several members of his family.
“During the war, I lost two uncles, cousins and friends aged 16 or 17”, Huillier said.
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Last week, Huillier recalled fraternal values advocated by his former comrades in arms in an article published ahead of the first round of elections.
“In the Resistance, there were of course French people, but there were also many foreigners. There were 36 nationalities in our ranks”, he wrote.
Huillier, who took part a few weeks earlier in several ceremonies honouring the maquis of the Vercors, is saddened by the current situation.
“What’s happening is dramatic. We’re in trouble”, he said, adding that many French people “cast their ballots mindlessly because our leaders don’t know where they’re going”.
While Huillier believed he has “no instructions to give to people”, he regretted that those who vote for the far right “don’t think about the consequences”.
Nevertheless, Huillier, who narrowly escaped the German repression in the Vercors, remained optimistic.
“We mustn’t despair. We’re going to get through this. Unfortunately, things like this must happen for people to start thinking,” Huillier said.
This paper is adapted from the original in French.
