“I, the undersigned, Madame Bondoux, supervisor at the prison in Bourges, certify that nine men, mostly youths, were subjected to abominable treatment. They remained with their hands bound behind their backs and with chains on their feet for 15 to 20 days; it was absolutely impossible for them to take their food in a normal way and they were screaming with hunger. In the face of this situation several of the ordinary criminal prisoners showed their willingness to help these martyrs by making small packets from their own rations which I had passed to them in the evening. A certain German supervisor, whom I knew under his first name of Michel, threw their bread in a corner of the cell, and at night came to beat them. All these young men were shot on 20 November 1943.
“Then, too, a woman named Hartwig, who lived at Chevannes, I believe, told me that she had remained for 4 days bound to a chair. At all events, I can testify that her body was completely bruised.”
We read in the statement of M. Labussiere, who is a captain of the reserve and a teacher at Marseilles-les-Aubigny:
“. . . On the 11th I was twice flogged with a lash. I had to bend over a bench and the muscles of my thighs and calves were fully stretched. At first I received some 30 lashes with a heavy whip, then another instrument was used which had a buckle at the end. I then was struck on the buttocks, on the thighs, and on the calves. To do this my torturer got up on a bench and made me spread my legs. Then with a very thin thong he finished off by giving me some 20 more biting lashes. When I picked myself up I was dizzy and I fell to the ground. I was always picked up again. Needless to say, the handcuffs were never taken off my wrists . . .”
I recoil from reading the remainder of this testimony. The details which precede are atrocious.
“At 10 o’clock on the 12th, after having beaten a woman, Paoli came to find me and said: ‘Dog, you have no heart. It was your wife I have just beaten. I’ll go on doing it as long as you refuse to talk.’ He wanted me to give the place of our meetings and the names of my comrades.”
On the following line:
“. . . on the 14th at 6 o’clock in the evening I was taken once again to the torture chamber. I could hardly crawl. Before he let me come in, Paoli said: ‘I give you 5 minutes to tell me all you know. If after these 5 minutes you’ve said nothing, you’ll be shot at 3 o’clock; your wife will be shot at six, and your boy will be sent to Germany.’ ”
We read that after signing the record of the interrogation his torturer said to him: