The day following the liberation, 38 corpses were found in two graves near Signes in the mountain of Var. One of the leaders of the Resistance of the Côte d’Azur, Valmy, and with him two parachutists, Pageot and Manuel, were identified. Of this massacre a witness was found—his name is Tuirot—whose statements are copied on Pages 105, 106, and 107 of your document book.
Tuirot was tortured, with his comrades, without having been given the opportunity of help from a counsel or a chaplain. The 38 men were taken to the woods. They appeared before a parody of a tribunal composed of SS. They were condemned to death and the sentence was executed.
We place now before the Tribunal Document F-586 as Exhibit Number RF-399. The Tribunal will find it on Page 110 of the document book. It deals with the execution at Saint Nazaire and Royans of 37 patriots, members of the French Secret Army, who were tortured before being executed. Here is the statement of facts by an eyewitness:
“I came through the ruins and arrived at the Château of Madame Laurent, a widow. There a frightful spectacle confronted me. The castle, which the Gestapo had used as a place of torture for the young Maquis, had been set on fire. In a cellar there was the calcinated skeleton which prior to death had had its forearms and a foot pulled off and which had perhaps been burned while still alive.”
But I proceed. Wherever the Gestapo was in operation there were the same methods.
Now we place before the Tribunal Document F-699, which relates to the murder at Grenoble of 48 members of the Secret Army all of whom were tortured. This document is submitted as Exhibit Number RF-400.
I now come to Document F-587, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-401. The Tribunal will find this document on Page 115 of the document book. It concerns the execution by hanging of 12 patriots at Nîmes, 2 of whom were dragged from the hospital where they were under care for wounds received in battle. These young men had all been captured in combat at St. Hippolyte-du-Fort. The bodies of these wretched men had been defiled. On their chests was a placard saying: “Thus are French terrorists punished.” When the French authorities wished to perform funeral rites for these unfortunate men, the bodies had disappeared. The German Army had removed them. They have never been discovered. It is a fact that two of these victims were dragged from the hospital. Document F-587 contains particularly the report of a witness who saw the men taken from the hospital ward where they were being cared for.
I now submit Document F-561 as Exhibit Number RF-402—Page 118 of your book. It deals with the execution at Lyons of 109 patriots who were shot under inhuman conditions. They were killed at the end of a day’s toil. On 14 August Allied planes had bombed the Bron airfield. From 16 to 22 August the German authorities had employed requisitioned civilians and prisoners from the Fort of Montluc at Lyons to fill the bomb craters. At the end of the day, when the work was finished, the civilian laborers went away; but the prisoners were shot on the spot after having been more or less ill-treated. Their bodies were stacked in half-filled craters.
Document F-591, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-403, Page 119 of the document book, is a report of atrocities committed by the German Army on 30 August 1944 at Tavaux (Aisne):
“During the afternoon of that day soldiers of the Adolf Hitler Division arrived at Tavaux. They appeared at the home of M. Maujean, who was leader of the resistance. His wife opened the door. Without explanation they shot at her, wounding her in the thigh and also in the lower jaw. They dragged her to the kitchen and broke one arm and one leg in the presence of her children, aged 9, 8, 7, and 6 years, and 8 months. They poured inflammable liquid over Madame Maujean and set fire to her in front of the children. The elder son held his little sister, 8 months old, in his arms. Then they told the children that they would shoot them if they did not tell them where their father was. The children said nothing, although they knew the whereabouts of their father. Before leaving they took the children to the cellar and locked them in. Then the Germans poured gasoline on the house and set it on fire. The fire was put out and the children were saved. These facts were told to M. Maujean by his eldest child. No other person was a witness to these facts because the inhabitants, frightened by the first houses set on fire, had sought refuge either in trenches or in the neighboring fields and woods.