Nearly 150 people pay tribute to the resistance fighters of Val de Morteau on the Swiss border

Thirteen smugglers from Val de Morteau in Haut-Doubs were deported during the Second World War. Only three of them came back. To pay tribute to them, a stele was inaugurated this Saturday, October 15 in the forest on the Swiss border, near the Auberge du Vieux Châteleu in Grand’Combe-Châteleu. An initiative of the association Le Souvenir Français. About 150 people were present. These smugglers, who lived in the area, saved about 200 jewsas well as resistance fighters and British airmen.

“To give an example, the two young men from Villers-le-Lac, aged 18 and 19, who were murdered in Cologne, were watchmakers. explains Jean-Michel Blanchot, president of the Souvenir Français in the canton of Morteau and the country of Saugeais. We don’t have a typical profile, but very diverse situations. This is what shows that behind this commitment of the resistance, it is the plural France which knew how to unite. A message to ponder in the current context with the War in Ukraine in particular, according to the association.

Michel Hollard crossed the border 98 times

Earlier in the morning, a ceremony was organized in tribute to Michel Hollard. This resistance fighter from the Paris region crossed the border 98 times between May 1941 and February 1944, to transmit information to the British Embassy in Bern. He is at the origin of the Agir network, made up of nearly a hundred resistance fighters across France. His most important feat of arms dates back to 1943. He transmitted sketches of the launching bases for the V1 rockets, installed on the edge of the Channel in Normandy. Most of them could have been destroyed before D-Day.

A memorial trail has been inaugurated in his memory between Louadey in La Brévine in Switzerland. 18 plaques retracing its history were installed along the route. A work of his granddaughter Agnès. “His memory was really threatened,” she explains.

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