In Moulins, this prison has held resistance fighters and Jews

In Moulins, in the Allier, each street corner reveals a heritage treasure: houses with wooden sides, mansions, 15th century tower-horloge with its mechanical ringer … But it is the castle of the Dukes of Bourbon, built around 1340, which dominates this rich historical decor. It testifies to the power of one of the largest seigneuries in France which governed the Bourbon country (the current Allier) at the end of the Middle Ages.

My colleague photographer Jérôme and I go to report for the summer series of Pilgrimin the footsteps of the demarcation line. During the Second World War, from June 1940 to March 1943, this 1,200 km long border cut France in two. It then separated the city of Moulins between an area occupied by the German army and an area called free, administered by Vichy.

A check and surveillance point

In spite of himself, the castle of the Dukes of Bourbon then housed a sinister German prison in its sandstone dungeon. Also called the “poorly styled”, the 45 m high tower has become a place of captivity and torture for thousands of resistance fighters and Jews. “It was the only exclusively German military prison in France,” said Farid Sbay, a Moulinois journalist and former exhibition curator of the evil. Its location near the demarcation line was strategic. It allowed the Germans to have a point of control and monitoring of clandestine passages between the occupied area and the free zone. ”

We pass the heavy prison door and enter the dungeon, to discover this dark page of our history. The Anne-de-Beaujeu Departmental Museum, a castle museum, has chosen to approach it without detour by opening the premises to the public, with guided tour, every summer season. Visitors can also discover the annual exhibition, which in turn relates to daily life under the occupation or the images of the end of the war in Moulins.

A ruthless prison regime

Over the course of the course, we learn that the Prison de la Malitée brought together people arrested throughout the Auvergne region, by the German army or the paramilitary organization of the SS. The prison regime was extremely severe as evidenced by the mitard in which we enter, in the basement of the dungeon. “Alphonse Rodier, a former resistance fighter, one day asked me to return to these dungeons where he had been interned for ten days,” continues Farid. When he went down the stairs, he collapsed in tears. He told us that in 1943 the Germans threw him into the steps. While now, he descended them as a free man, with his cane. ”

At the bottom of the steps, the view of individual dungeons has something to tremble with emotion. The German army isolated the resistance fighters in these humid and completely obscure rooms, after having questioned them and subjected to torture. Only the tingling of the bells of the nearby cathedral allowed prisoners to have a few more landmarks on time and space. Graffitis can also be observed at the lead mine on the walls of collective cells. They date back to the Liberation era, when the prison has once again passed under French control and the story changed. It was then the people suspected of collaboration with the German occupier who were locked up there.

A transit center before deportation

We go back in the upper floors of the tower, where there are empty cells of all furniture. Here, Jewish families – including children – and other people considered to be enemies of the 3rd Reich were to pile up in dormitorials under rudimentary conditions, between the walls of cold stone. The detention was only temporary, because the prison was a transit center before the deportation to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

“Even today, we do not know how many resistance fighters, hostages and Jews have been locked up between the walls of the evil wearing, deplores Pauline Forichon, a confessor guide for the Moulins tourist office, while we complete our visit to the dungeon. The German administration has won or destroyed the nut registers when the allies have arrived. ” It can be estimated, however, that in August 1944 no less than 400 people were incarcerated in the capacity.

Today, alas, none of them can still testify to their detention. In Moulins, the great witnesses of Nazi barbarism have all died in recent years, notably Alphonse Rodier. But enthusiasts of local history, like journalist Farid Sbay, undertake never ceasing to bring their memory to life.