1940 : Résister ou céder ? La France face à la ligne de démarcation – Documentaire Histoire – AMP

1940 : Résister ou céder ? La France face à la ligne de démarcation – Documentaire Histoire – AMP

1940. The French army is crushed
by the Third Reich. Defeated France is occupied by the
German army which divides the country into two large zones. A
1,200-kilometer-long, implacable internal border separates them. The dividing line. This split between a free zone
and an occupied zone caused the collapse of the organization
and economy of the country, governed by Marshal Pétain
and the Vichy government. As soon as Vichy wanted to move
goods from one zone to another, it was necessary to negotiate with the Germans. So the Germans
do what they want. Barbed wire, checkpoint,
patrol, mined area. Overnight, the daily lives of the French were completely turned upside down. It’s a real shock, that’s it. A village can be cut in two by this new border. If some agree to comply with the rules, others, despite their fear, will choose to defy German surveillance at the risk of their lives. They will help by all means those who seek to flee the occupied zone, to cross the line. Escaped prisoners, Jews, resistance fighters. I remember he was caught
passing people like that. So he was heading to Germany. To him, right away. To him, yes. I have a friend who lived in Chauneu,
a little further away, who was killed. At 4:00 in the morning, he was hit in the knee by an explosive and died in the snow. For nearly three years,
peaceful regions become strategic locations where
ordinary inhabitants will become heroes of history. If the Germans had really known
the truth of the story, they would have been facing execution. They shot people for less than that. The demarcation line had its heroes,
but also all those opportunists who developed all kinds of trafficking there. Some will take advantage of
people’s distress to charge themselves dearly for crossing the demarcation line. Across Indre et Loire,
Cher and Jura, here is the drama of a country cut in two. Using previously unpublished archives and testimonies
, we will tell the story of men and women who risked everything
to cross the demarcation line imposed by the occupier. On April 18, 1959, General de Gaulle made an official visit to Cher. In his speech,
he spoke of the rift that marked France under the occupation. I know everything that was done here
and it was all the more commendable to you because you were here on the edge of the tragedy, since you were almost on this wound which was formed
across our country by what was called the demarcation line. This is the first time that the
demarcation line has been publicly designated in this way . 18 years after its establishment. Yet, it was indeed a wound
for France in 1940. A real wound that
cost many lives. It’s one of the taboos. It is part
of the repression of memory. It was difficult for the
national authorities to celebrate what had been a scar for many French people,
what was also the infamous mark of the occupation for the French state,
that is to say, ultimately a demarcation line that set
the French back to back. Back in June 1940. Nine months after the start
of the Second World War, France capitulates, devastated
by the German offensive. The country is on its knees,
with 60,000 dead in combat, 120,000 wounded and 1,800,000 prisoners. An armistice agreement
was signed on June 22. I give myself to force
to alleviate its misfortune. In these painful hours,
I think of the unfortunate refugees who, in the desperate conditions, are crisscrossing the road. I express my
compassion and concern to them. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you
today that we must stop fighting. The clauses are severe. Among them, the creation of a
1,200-kilometer demarcation line that will cut France in two. It will extend from Lake Geneva
to the Basse-Pyrénées, without taking into account the existing administrative division. The Germans had a logic:
the total occupation of the attacked country. We can see this with Poland,
for example, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, in particular. So, sooner or later, Hitler has the idea
of ​​completely occupying France. But he needs logistics,
he needs troops to turn against England. And Hitler still occupies
a large part of Europe. So, he has no material and human
means, not enough means to occupy all of the countries. Hitler leaves the southern half
of France free and occupies the northern half where
the industries and energy sources are located. This ensures that he has a grip
on the country’s economy. The line’s layout is constantly
redrawn during the first few weeks. The Germans took care to adapt it
to facilitate surveillance, but above all to keep
factories, granaries, mines, and all the country’s wealth in the occupied zone. From a strategic point of view,
it occupies and fortifies the maritime facades to the west to protect itself
from an English landing. The entire Atlantic coastline was placed
in the occupied zone, thus creating a corridor with one
of the Reich’s allies, the Spanish dictator Franco. At first, the demarcation line
is intended to be provisional. Hitler planned to occupy all of France
sooner or later, before the end of 1940 or before the beginning of 1941. Vichy, of course, did not even imagine this. Vichy even considered creating a
corridor between the demarcation line and Paris to allow
the government based in Vichy to move freely between the two zones. So, obviously there is a game of deception,
because the ministers of the Vichy Regime, except two,
did not have a pass. After the vote of July 10, 1940,
Marshal Pétain became the only legal authority in the free zone. An authority under close surveillance. Only the head of government,
Pierre Laval, and Admiral Darlan have a permanent pass. This is yet another slap in the face for the
Vichy government, whose central administrations are all in Paris. In total, three-fifths
of French territory is occupied. The people of northern France
who fled the advance of German troops find themselves
far from their homes. The occupants have
a nasty surprise in store for them. Millions of French people,
perhaps a quarter of the French population, discover the
demarcation line when they return home. That’s a first shock. Besides, the Germans
impose a deadline. You have to return to the occupied zone if you
are a refugee until October 1940. After that, it will be too late. The demarcation line will be closed
and crossings will have to be negotiated. After this period, each passage from the south
to the north, under German domination, becomes a real ordeal. France is cut in two. In Indre-et-Loire,
the archives preserve the diary of Jean Chauvin, aged 15 in 1940. In it, he describes his daily life and his
first encounter with the demarcation line in drawings. Wednesday, August 7, we are going to Varennes. We need to change areas. It’s not funny with these roses. Mom and Dad struggle to get
a five-day pass. And me, belt. We’re taking the risk. The passage is seriously guarded.
It’s ugly. Village. By a super dumpster, we pass three
with a pass for two. Phew, we’ll manage the return. It’s a real shock. A village can be cut in two
by this new border. On one side we have Germans,
on the other side. We have French troops
monitoring the line. But there you have it, it’s a real border
created ex nihilo, from nothing at all in a few weeks. In his notebook,
Jean Chauvin wrote on Sunday, August 4: They have already been here for a month and a half. They already have quite a few nicknames:
Verdegris, Grasshopper, Spinach. At first, we took them quite well. Now we’re starting
to get fed up. You cannot cross
the demarcation line. We hope the English win
and get rid of them. The dividing line is not
just a line on a map. It is a real border that the
soldiers of the Reich closely guard. It must be identifiable to facilitate
monitoring along its entire route. The Germans used everything
that represented a natural obstacle to the passage: waterways,
ridges, but also roads and railways. Here, in Indre-et-Loire,
she passed through an open field. The Germans had set up
a heavily armed post there. The demarcation line was symbolized,
materialized by posts. Every 150 to 1.50 meters,
poles 1.50 to 2 meters high, poles in Nazi colors. There was the German post here,
a few other German posts to the west and east. And in fact, at the crossing point here,
there was a barrier and some barbed wire fencing all around it. As you can see, the Germans
had a 360-degree view. They saw very, very clearly in the free zone
and on returning, they saw very, very clearly in the occupied zone, the possible
arrivals of clandestine passengers. This internal border is a
dramatic obstacle for those seeking to flee the occupied zone clandestinely. The guards do not hesitate to shoot
the smugglers and those who guide him. To officially cross the line,
you need an ausweis, a pass distributed sparingly. The process of obtaining it is
endless and completely random. Power. Vichy published a veritable instruction manual
for crossing the demarcation line, but it was the Germans
who had the real power. We know that it was complicated
to obtain an ausweis. This was what the German authorities wanted.
They didn’t want it to be something easy. The Vichy government had to be forced
to collaborate. So, the Ausweis could
sometimes be obtained through corruption. Sometimes
a German soldier had to be paid. And sometimes being in the good
books of German soldiers. This clandestine nighttime risk is
the only solution for those who do not have the famous sesame. Mined areas are very dangerous for those who do not know
the time of patrols . Some farmers who settled almost
on the line will become smugglers. Here we are on the
Martot family farm. These are peasants from Touraine who
found themselves, despite themselves, in the occupied zone under the occupation from 1940
and who found themselves smuggling illegal passengers from
almost all over France, notably from the Paris region,
and who saw the illegal passengers arriving by this path which overlooks
the farm, since above the farm, it is a cereal plateau,
and therefore which finally allowed the illegal passengers to arrive here
at the Ferme des Martaux, asking for help from Monsieur Martau,
from Papa Martau, as we used to say, and who was helped by his three sons
to smuggle illegal passengers into the free zone. Among these candidates for passage,
a large number of French soldiers escaped from the Stalag fronts,
the prisoner of war camps located in France. Roger and Raymond, two of the Marteau brothers,
aged about fifteen in 1940, remember the first time they
helped fugitives cross. They were three escaped prisoners
and they were hiding on the banks of the Cher. We went to look for them,
but when we got there, they said: Watch out, there are
patrols, we can’t get through. There were three of us brothers and my father. There was one who was right side up,
another one right side up, and we were waving to each other : Okay, you can go. The first patrol passed
on the road, we saw him pass. It was said: In principle,
there is still another one. The second one has passed. And then from there, we walked in
front, then they followed us. All three of them passed it. Three prisoners of war
escaped, obviously. We were happy,
we had passed someone. We were happy in there. We were pleased
to pass by. I’m not bothering you. We had succeeded. The one who was caught
passing people like that. So he was heading to Germany. He would come right back. Despite the risks,
using their farm as a meeting point and their knowledge
of the region, the Marteau brothers will help dozens of fugitives cross. As for the Germans,
they are trying by all means to limit trade between the two zones. They thus ensure control
over the country and its economy. When the Germans
drew up the plan, they were careful,
in certain towns, to place the industries in occupied zones. So the occupied zone will not send
to the unoccupied zone, obviously. All goods, all
manufactured goods, all metallurgical goods,
everything will go to the Third Reich. So the unoccupied zone is oppressed
and deprived of all the wealth of the occupied zone. The occupied zone represents 80 percent
of France’s economic potential. The closure of the demarcation line
therefore has terrible consequences for what remains of economic activity in the free zone. As soon as Vichy wanted to move
goods from one zone to another, it was necessary to negotiate with the Germans. So the Germans
do what they want. Moreover, a German officer
compared the demarcation line to a dead man being put in a horse’s mouth. If France is sympathetic and allows
looting, then more freedom will be granted
to cross the demarcation line. If France resists
German demands, then the demarcation line will be hermetically sealed. The
Bourges Resistance Museum preserves in its collections a rare testimony
to this border and German demands. She expresses herself down
to the smallest details. This type of sign was clearly placed at the precise location where the demarcation line ran, with instructions,
always in bilingual, given to the French
on everything they could not do in this border area. Now, here, we can clearly see that we are
in the border zone, it is the river, the Cher, and what is marked? It is strictly forbidden to cross
or swim on the Cher, to bathe in the Cher,
to row on the Cher, to fish on the left bank of the Cher,
to cross food and goods on the left bank of the Cher,
to cross food and goods on the left bank of the Cher. Any kind of violation will be punished. Now the river itself
has become the border zone. We are no longer allowed to park there
or engage in the activities we used to do. As the months go by, the line will
become increasingly hermetic. Even the passage of mail
from one zone to another is strictly prohibited. Telegrams are censored,
telephone conversations are listened to. The Germans drew the
demarcation line without taking into account the local populations
and the existing administrative divisions. This greatly complicates the daily lives
of the French, especially those living on the border who see their
lives turned upside down by this arbitrary demarcation. At the beginning of the establishment of the
demarcation line, many farmers,
winegrowers and cereal growers were worried about how to work peacefully
from one zone to another, when the fields were cut in two, the
farm being in one zone and the fields in the other. We end up with families who are
completely cut off on both sides of the line. That is to say, people meet on
weekends to talk on both sides of the barrier,
but they are not allowed to cross it because you
sometimes need very strict medical reasons to simply go and
visit your parents, your uncle, your aunt. For daily life, home,
work, you must of course obtain these famous day passes
which allow you to cross the demarcation line. And then, to get supplies,
to go shopping at the market in the village next door, it’s no longer possible. In fact, we will mainly find ourselves with
the explosion of black market trafficking, which will simply make it possible
to compensate for the lack of supply from one area to another. The black market allows those with
money to feed themselves properly by paying double
or triple the legal value for food. Those who cannot afford it
are undernourished. In the Jura,
border workers are helping those in the occupied zone where
mortality is skyrocketing. A
farmer made a find in his attic more than 30
years after the war. A chest filled with letters addressed
to his father, Henri Gandel, a peasant who did not seek
to profit from people’s distress. This is mail that people
came to us during the war. There were many who thanked him
for the work they were doing, putting his life at risk. And then, it was mainly to
ask them if there were any supplies. There were people from Lyon who
came to get supplies. They would order in advance
and then come and pick it up. In total,
more than 150 letters addressed to Henri Gandell
reflect the end of a population subject to rationing due to
the demands of the occupier. Real calls for help, but also a lot of gratitude. What do we see
through these letters? That he essentially fed the little
people when there were other opportunities. There was a very strong
demand from the Germans. They were just
on the other side of the line. They sent emissaries to
buy food at a high price. They had the means to pay. And Gandel’s merit
is that he did not give in to these sirens. But he supplied bourgeois who… It was perhaps also a way
for him to get money. But, unlike
many others, peasants of his condition,
he supplied people who could not afford to buy at market price. I would almost say that he was losing
money, or at least that he wasn’t making any at all. We can’t
complain about being hungry. We cannot say,
since my father came from the animals, he carried out clandestine slaughter. Sometimes, when the weather was nice,
we went outside. And then we would put plates out and then
everyone would put the dish on the table. There was no fuss. And then people helped themselves,
so we made fire poles or crude things like that… And then everyone
helped themselves, they ate. Those who could not afford to pay
offered their help for farm work. We went to the fields,
we had culture. My sister and I used to go
to the fields a lot. So they came to help us sometimes
dig the potatoes, everything, the beets, the corn. There was a lot of bartering, a lot
of black markets, it was really… It’s a gray market.
Yes. The departments crossed by the
demarcation line are seeing a large number of candidates for clandestine crossing.
Stins. And it is in the center of France
that they are most numerous. In Indre-et-Loire, near Tours, Voo,
a village of 400 inhabitants, is emblematic of this trafficking. It was the register of his
only hotel that revealed it. Between 1937 and 1940, he only rented ten
nights a year to people from the region. But between 1940 and 1942,
no fewer than 200 nights were booked by visitors
from all over France. 20 times more. This is what the
German soldiers’ checkpoint looked like in 1940. Today,
only the foundations remain. A position that did not prevent
volunteers for clandestine passage from coming there to try their
luck despite the risks. We don’t come to you by chance. You, it’s not an axis of There is no
rail transport, there is no main road. We are coming to you on purpose
to cross the demarcation line. Obviously there
is a network of smugglers, the illegal smuggler,
and people come to join near the line before
crossing the line in one direction. So either they go north
or they go south. During the occupation,
the preferred means of transport was the railway. Vaud therefore becomes a strategic location,
because it is close to Tours, in Indre-et-Loire, and Vierzon, in Cher. These two cities are the closest
by train to the Paris region. They see all those
who seek to reach the free zone flooding in. The town of Vierzon is
crossed by the Cher. The Germans chose this river
as their natural border and the customs post is located at the bridge. Vierzon therefore finds itself cut in two. Students are separated from their schools,
shopkeepers from their customers, patients from their doctors,
workers from their factories. They are issued a special permit,
requiring them to go through the official customs post. Vierzon was recognized for its
passage possibilities because Vierzon being cut in two, the Vierzonnais
began to pass. It wasn’t initially a desire
for resistance or anything, but circumstances meant that they
lived along the demarcation line , so they helped along the way. This became known because the smugglers
were part of the network and therefore the candidates for crossing,
the illegal immigrants, were driven to Vierzon. And in Vierzon,
they were directed to the smugglers by the address given to them. Adrien Fontaine,
a particularly committed Vierzon resident, was one of his facilitators. His son Francis,
who was a child in 1940, found the notes his father
wrote throughout the period of the occupation. This is what he says. The city center was in the
occupied zone, the southern part in the free zone. If there was a cemetery in the free zone,
there were no churches. From this moment on,
the comedy of crossing the line was to be played out. It should be noted that the cemetery
was in the free zone, while the church was in the occupied zone. So, the funeral processions in Vierzon,
there was a fairly large crowd who didn’t know the deceased,
who crossed the bridges and the demarcation line to go
to the cemetery and back. There were far fewer people. The Germans realized this after a while and demanded that he be made bishop, ordering the parish priest
to build a church in the free zone in order to stop this trafficking. Residents compete in imagination
to cross the line, sometimes taking all the risks. In 1940, there was no radio, there
was no Internet. No one really knows what’s going on. So, for now, we’re helping people. We pass letters,
we pass simple families. We try to help escaped soldiers
get to the southern zone, but we have no idea of ​​the real dangers. So much so that we don’t hesitate
to immortalize ourselves by grimacing in front of the checkpoints when
the gardons turn their backs. Adrien Fontaine was a member
of an intelligence network. He was also a municipal engineer
and this position gave him access to the entire city of Vierzon, both
the free zone and the occupied zone. He took the opportunity to help
people cross the line. My father also had the town’s road workers pass through the official post in front of the German barracks, who had
the duty of cleaning the free part of the town at the same time
as the occupied part. He gave the road mender who was
in the scheme, the person who wanted to pass,
the road mender gave him a broom and both of them pushed
the broom on the bridges, since the hut was at the end of the bridge. He was going to the other side to continue. Then, after an hour or two,
when the road mender had finished his work, he would come back alone with his
broom and the guy would go through it quietly. My father didn’t tell me everything. I
had to ask him about a few things to get some information, but I’d say he died with his secrets. In Vierzon,
Adrien Fontaine is not the only one taking advantage of his situation
to help out. Right in the city center, a
few meters from customs, a network of people smugglers operates
under the eyes of the Germans. The dear natural border
for the demarcation line. You have to imagine behind me a sentry box
with German soldiers who controlled the different passages. And the first illegal smugglers were
able to benefit from the Bouillon pharmacy, which at the time was a café,
the Café Moreau, named after its owners,
where potential smugglers could enter the café in groups
and only leave in groups of one or two. The entrance to the café was in the occupied zone
and there was an exit at the back which allowed passage into the
free zone without going through German customs officers.
This ploy worked for three months. The couple of cafe owners were
denounced and the cafe barricaded. Those seeking passage had to find
other channels and resort to smugglers who had become
increasingly experienced and very well informed. These are
people who have knowledge of the terrain, knowledge
of places, of topography. And then above all,
in just a few months, they finally got used to the habits of German controls,
the places where the Germans often pass, where they like to hide,
precisely to try to surprise illegal immigrants, etc. So, all of this is known at the local level. And then, we can also use a
lot of children, adolescents who are in the sector
and who can provide, who observe a lot. And then which provide a lot
of information, ultimately very practical,
on how we can organize the passage in certain sectors. By the autumn of 1940, the French were
no longer under any illusions. The Germans
were not defeated by the English. The conflict is dragging on. The dividing line
is made to last. A partner subject to Hitler’s policy,
the Vichy government committed itself to state collaboration on October 24, 1940
. It was sealed by the famous
handshake between the Marshal and Hitler at Montoir. It is with honor
and to maintain French unity that I enter today
into the path of collaboration. Thus, in the near future,
the burden of suffering in our country could be alleviated. This could make the demarcation line more flexible, making it easier to administer
and supply the territory. Contrary to promises,
controls will not be relaxed. The passage of goods,
mail and people will remain extremely complicated over the
1,200 kilometers of the demarcation line. Housewives, hard to get. The image of the marshal, subjected to fury,
will shock the population and reinforce the feeling of humiliation of the French. The smugglers will gradually put themselves
at the service of the resistance and take more and more risks. Francis Fontaine was
at school with Pierre Ageny. This one was in the free zone
on the other side of the line. My father, like my grandfather, had meetings that I saw as a little discreet, not to say secret,
with other people from the neighborhood, to welcome people
who had just passed by. Something had to be done with
these people. So, we housed them,
we made them sleep. And I saw them come
to my parents’ house several times, to an attic room. And there they were planning
their headlong flight. We didn’t ask questions,
we just watched, we listened, etc. And they especially didn’t want to tell us anything
because we could have gone to rehearse, because there were still
charitable souls whose favorite sport was to suspect us or denounce us, etc. Little by little, disobedience is organized. Some cross-border workers create false
papers, others become full-time smugglers. Some even quit their jobs
to devote themselves solely to crossing the demarcation line. It was indeed possible to be
paid for one’s activity as a smuggler, but at the same time,
to be fundamentally in a resistance logic, quite simply because
this is indeed the case, for example, with Raymond Toupet. He charged a price considered
fair for passage to those who could pay. And on the other hand, they passed it on
for free to people who were really in need. Raymond Toupet left his job as a worker
at just the right time to devote himself to the activity of smuggler. His reputation reached as far as
the Estalag in Germany. In Normandy, his route is recommended
to all those who wish to pass through the unoccupied zone to reach
England via Spain. Gustave Cillard is one of them. A resistance fighter from the very beginning,
he wanted to go to Marseille to embark for England and join de Gaulle. He arrives in Vierzon and makes
contact with Raymond Toupet. In an interview conducted in the
2000s, he recounted how he managed to get into the free zone. After meeting Toupet,
I still wasn’t too reassured. I said to him: Is it going to be okay,
Mr. Ferryman? And he said to me: Listen,
it’s not complicated. Tonight we will all be free
together or we will all die together. When night fell, we set off and pulled a boat out of the riverbed behind us. In the distance, we could hear
dogs barking, and we were beginning to get a little worried. We jumped into the boat,
as it got closer, the barking, the cursing of the Germans. At one point they fired randomly,
but it was still quite far away. And we crossed. And there we arrived in the free zone. As we were about to part,
I said: I owe you something, Mr. Toupet. And he looks at me, he says: No, not you. He said to me: Freedom cannot be sold. Historians estimate that
Raymond Toupet smuggled 2,000 people into his boat. A record. Some of them
will ultimately stop there because they will become aware of
the risks they are taking. For many,
they will face arrests, prison sentences, and fines. But for others, on the contrary,
it will only ultimately strengthen their first form of commitment. This is where we will see the emergence of a
conscious commitment to resist, to simply defy what the Nazis
wanted to put in place on French territory and to
gradually, truly enter into resistance
in a conscious and organized manner. The smuggling networks gradually extended
along the entire line, especially in the center, in Cher,
Loiret Cher and Indre-et-Loire. In this department, taking
advantage of his status which allows him to easily pass through controls,
a notable from the village of Descartes takes the head of a network. His name is André Goupil. André Goupil, who was a veterinarian,
with a family, with four children. He had fought in the 1914-1918 war and
was between 40 and 50 years old. He can cross the demarcation line
because he has a sight that allows him to continue tending the animals on
the farms on either side of the line. He will go through the war trying
to help his fellow citizens cross the line, to pass information
from north to south or from south to north. And gradually, he will enter
into networks of resistance. What interested the Germans
were the leaders of the networks, those who passed on intelligence,
those who passed on resistance. The
networks are generally organized by mature men
who know a lot of people locally, who have a
fairly well-established social position, who will be helped by their wives
and also by servants. They are men who are
trusted by many. So, they organize channels which
sometimes require financial resources. The situation will become more difficult
at the demarcation line. From June 1941,
Wehrmacht troops were mobilized on the Russian front
where German soldiers fell by the tens of thousands in the face of
resistance from the Red Army. On the line, soldiers who had gone to
fight in the East were replaced by more efficient customs officers. In his memoirs, André Goupil
testifies to their aggressive methods. Around June 1941,
customs officers were provided with dogs, of course German shepherds. The mere presence of these dogs was
frightening and the surveillance of the line, by appearing to be increased,
had the result of making those who were only dedicated
to profiting from the passages stay at home. As the months went by,
the greater the difficulties became, the more their number diminished. Customs officers are well-versed
in clandestine smuggling techniques and all sorts of subterfuges. And so, as a result,
control will be much tighter on the demarcation line,
with much better controlled and supervised patrols. And then increased surveillance
at the crossing points, well When we present papers,
when we try to get goods through,
the customs officers will be much more vigilant than the German army was. What traumatized me and struck me
and is still fresh in my mind is that one night a patrol
intercepted a passer-by on the banks of the Cher. He had been pursued
by the Germans and especially by his dog. And his dog caught him
in front of my room. It was awful to hear this guy
being eaten by the dog. And that has marked me all my life. The customs officers, it must be said, were
a little scared because they said: We were letting people through, but we, chief,
and we, Russia. He was afraid because he often passed a leader
on a bike, who checked whether he was doing his patrol well. So automatically,
if he had seen that he was letting someone pass, automatically,
he would have been sent to the Russian front. They did their work with fear. Customs officers are more vigilant. The passages become
more and more difficult. The ferryman André Goupil describes
this change in his memoirs. All those for whom the lure of gain
overcame fear guided those who wanted to pass into the southern zone. Among the smugglers,
there were those who imposed a tariff and who, for example, would
not pass a letter unless it was accompanied
by a 5 franc note. There were those, few in number,
it must be admitted, who made Jews pay dearly for
a passage that they described as difficult and dangerous. The demarcation line will
inevitably generate trade. There are those who know how to cross
the line and others who don’t. Some will take advantage of
people’s distress to make themselves pay dearly for the demarcation line. And the more afraid we are, the more ready we are,
and the more willing we are to give a lot of money. Especially when you’re Jewish,
during the summer of 1942. So, you try to pay for a very
quick and safe crossing of the demarcation line. And sometimes we see people
who think that Jews have a lot of money, so they ask for a lot of money
to cross the demarcation line. In his account, André Goupil states:
As a result of the arrests and the fear they inspired,
there were even fewer smugglers. We became even closer to those
who had decided to continue the fight. Those who wish to continue the struggle
are the resisters. A clandestine activity that is even
riskier if you are at another point on the line, in the
far east of France, in the Jura. Here, the demarcation line runs along the
prohibited zone which extends from the mouth of the Somme to the Rhône. It is a hermetically sealed territory
that serves as a buffer between France and Alsace-Moselle, annexed by Hitler. The forbidden zone
is intended to belong to the Reich. That is, she will be German. They are the ones who lead. It’s them. They are numerous. They govern, they have the powers
of the occupying power. In this zone, the occupier can intern,
deport, or execute anyone without referring to the French authorities. Bernard Bouvray could not bear this German takeover of his
territory and
joined a resistance network in 1940. He lives in Chapelle,
a village of 250 inhabitants. The restricted area begins just
behind the village church. I saw them parading here in the
square in front of the house. There I saw all the
French troops fleeing the Germans, all disorganized, the debate. And then, two days later,
I saw the Germans arrive, well- dressed, with nice equipment,
well-disciplined and everything. And then my father, my uncle,
had fought in the First World War and he thought it was the last,
that he would never see it again. And 20 years later, it’s happening again. And I said to myself: It’s
not possible to accept this. There will surely be something to do. The young man does not have an easy task. Here, to resist is to risk death. We too were already in the occupied zone. But in addition to the occupied zone,
the Germans had established this forbidden zone where no one was
allowed to go. Two nights on that party,
he shot without warning. I have a friend who lived in Chauneu,
a little further away, who was killed. At 4:00 in the morning,
he took an explosive rod to the knee and died in the snow. The opportunity to resist more
actively will present itself quickly. For those seeking to escape the
occupied zone and reach Switzerland, the forbidden zone is an obligatory passage. Bernard Bouvray will begin to pass on intelligence
in sometimes very difficult conditions, especially in winter. And little by little, escaped prisoners,
resistance fighters, Jewish families fleeing German roundups. We once passed a family with some. They were
Jews, there were about ten of them. There were about ten little kids
who were this tall, and we carried them on our shoulders. It was complicated for us because we
had to avoid making the kids cry.
You had to talk to them all the time. Then, when there were… You know, there are often branches,
so you had to bend down so the kids wouldn’t get branches
in their faces, so they wouldn’t start crying. Because especially on the edge,
especially on the edge of the forest, where it was most dangerous. It was very, very,
very difficult with the kids. For him, every day is a game
of tracking down German patrols. A terribly dangerous game. The Swiss border was particularly
sought after, if I may say so, and the Germans, there was a density
of German surveillance much greater than on the simple
demarcation line. The Germans were patrolling
all the time. We couldn’t base ourselves on an hour
of patrol, but we knew that they were patrolling along the road,
in any case, and then along the edge of the forest, since they all had
leather boots with iron heels. Who scored well in the ground. So that was very helpful to us
because they were marking their steps well. So when they passed,
we saw their traces. So when we realized that they had
found one of our paths, one of our passages,
they would change for a while. We borrowed one from others. Bernard Bouvray lives in the café-
grocery store in the village of Chapelle, in the heart of the Jura. Every day, with his father and a few
friends, he challenges the authority of the occupier. During the war, I lived there. Since I was going to Switzerland,
and since I often bring back mail, the mailbox
was there for the post. I had to avoid
putting mail there. I had to put as little as
possible because the Germans who lived in the house
at the end, it was the German barracks. All the Germans were there. They checked
the mail and everything. If they had found
compromising mail when they left Chapelle, they risked being arrested. If the Germans had really known
the truth of the story, we would have risked being executed. They shot at least that many. Like all smugglers,
Bernard Bouvray fears denunciations. In Chapelle,
only a handful of villagers know about his clandestine actions. The others are scared stiff. Many people in the village
accepted. They accepted being subject to
German laws, to the things, they accepted everything.
Then we had a hard time accepting it. People didn’t support us
because one day a guy grabbed me and
said, ‘You’re not going to finish your bullshit soon because you’re
going to burn the country.’ He sowed doubt in us. From where we had confidence in ourselves,
confidence in what we were doing. But the Germans were
still the masters at that time. We didn’t know if they would stay there. We wouldn’t have wanted there to be
reprisals because of us. It was hard to situate, to think,
to know if we were doing the right thing or not, because we had to see the
German propaganda against the Jews. That’s what scared us. The balance of power will,
however, gradually shift. On November 8, 1942,
the Allies landed in North Africa. This is Operation Torch. Hitler saw this as a threat of a landing
in Provence and ordered his troops to invade the entire country. Three days later,
all of France was occupied. The Germans cross
the demarcation line. Pétain was obviously not warned. He will only be notified at the end of the night
and these protests will be of absolutely no use. Five months later, on March 1, 1943,
the demarcation line was definitively removed. It was Hitler who requested this removal
because the demarcation line could no longer be monitored by customs officers
or German soldiers. The war demanded more and more
resources from Hitler, particularly on the Russian front. And Pierre Laval,
who has returned to power, the President of the Council,
the head of government, with a great propaganda boost,
says to the French: Look, thanks to our efforts,
the demarcation line has been removed while the whole of France is occupied. It seems totally unbelievable. The policy of collaboration with
Germany, followed by Mr. Pierre Laval,
since the Montoir meeting, has brought a new success. The demarcation line established since
the armistice is no longer, from March 1,
an obstacle to even private travel, to telephone calls, to the exchange of letters. Inter-zone maps are no more. Many smugglers did
not think they were putting up any resistance when they were moving
people from one area to another. On the other hand,
some smugglers, when the demarcation line was
officially removed on March 1, 1943, decided to continue doing
something, to continue to refuse the German presence and to respond to this occupation
that they could not bear in the heart of their land. Above all, we will have this vision of the resistance fighter who will sabotage factories, who will distribute manhunts
in cities, etc., who will work in
structured movements, in structured networks. Indeed,
we are already dealing with a form of resistance which is much more scattered,
much less organised too. And then, indeed,
we are really there, the majority of them are agricultural workers,
peasants, traders, artisans. So, we are really in a fabric
which is specific to that of what we could call today
deep France, which is mainly rural. It is impossible today to know
the exact number of smugglers, but also of the victims of this
almost ordinary resistance for which some have paid dearly. Pursued by the Germans,
Raymond Toupet, the man with the 2000th crossing, was shot dead on February 6, 1942
by a patrol, probably the victim of a denunciation. On February 12, 1944,
André Goupil, the ringleader, was arrested at his home with his
wife Jeanne and their children. They are separated and deported
to different camps. As fate would have it, they
all survived. On April 7, 1944, Bernard Bouvray, a long-time resistance fighter, was arrested by customs officers on the orders of the Gestapo. Deported to the Dachot camp,
he was freed by the Americans on April 29. The demarcation line
lasted just over two years. However, the southern zone will struggle
to catch up economically. And the departments crossed by this
internal border will preserve the memory of this tear. Just like the French,
victims of Hitler’s desire to cut France in two in order to better subjugate it.

Et si la plus longue frontière de France avait été… en France ? Découvrez l’histoire de la ligne de démarcation, cette cicatrice de l’Occupation qui a bouleversé des millions de vies. 👋 + de documentaires histoire 👉 http://bit.ly/3lqyFpY 🙏 Abonnez vous !

Entre juin 1940 et mars 1943, la ligne de démarcation, longue de 1.200 kilomètres, a fracturé la France en deux. Au Nord, la zone occupée par les soldats d’Hitler, au Sud, la zone administrée par le régime de Vichy du Maréchal Pétain.

Ce film lève le voile sur les errements honteux de la collaboration mais aussi sur les actes les plus courageux et les plus nobles.

À voir également :
2nd Guerre Mondiale : La Résistance en France, Ils ont osé face à Vichy 👉 https://youtu.be/2l6mD4d94x0
Seconde Guerre Mondiale – 1939-1945 – Résistance 👉 https://youtu.be/BCP_TAOC15M
La face cachée de la résistance – Seconde Guerre Mondiale 👉 https://youtu.be/n7zxpfCYsd4

Notre playlist dédiée 👉 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqKSNbk66i9l5m1ot0TGV7O5Qd6PbMazj&si=ijzyfhyuo2x3v3f2

Ce documentaire a été réalisé à des fins pédagogiques et peut contenir des images qui peuvent heurter la sensibilité de certaines personnes. Si vous êtes une personne sensible, le visionnage de ce documentaire vous est déconseillé.

“1940, LA LIGNE DE DEMARCATION”
Réalisé par Françoise Cros de Fabrique
©Ampersand

#histoiredefrance #Occupation #LigneDeDémarcation #WWII #Documentaire #Histoire #notrehistoire #France1940 #SecondeGuerreMondiale #FranceOccupée #ZoneLibre #Vichy