Notes on the account

The account was written by my father in the nineteen eighties. I am not able to give a more precise date. In fact it was a time when we had broken all contact as a result of some serious family problems.

The original comprised 21 pages of manuscript, the first of which is reproduced below. It has been copied out neatly by hand in an exercise book, probably by his partner, Mme. Ginette Durel, who made a few corrections in the style and the French. It was then typed out in duplicate. When I read this text I recognised some of the characters. What appears here is a revised version made by refering to the original manuscript and by making my own corrections to the style to try to clarify certain passages without detracting too much from the authenticity.

During my childhood my father often brought up memories of his time as a prisoner and I am surprised that certain details which I heard from his very lips, do not figure in the story.

I will mention two of these:

The first one probably dates from the first months during which time, as he often told us, he suffered terribly from hunger. The diet was indeed particularly hard for those who, not wanting to work for Germany, had refused to go out on work parties. Amongst his unfortunate compagnons was one Charles Rigoulot, a very famous champion weight lifter. He was greatly admired by the Germans who held a limitless adoration for physical force.
According to my father Charles Rigoulot profited from this fact to obtain favours in the form of extra potatoes or bread from the kitchens and that he gave his wretched compagnons the chance to take advantage of this.
The second one is about the time spent in Colditz. He mentions in the acccount several people of whom I had certainly never heard, but strangely he omits the very one about whom he had often spoken to us. This was Lieutenant Mairesse-Lebrun, a French officer, who made a fantastic escape.
He fled in shorts, during the course of a recreation period in the castle moat, whilst he was under close supervison. While accomplisses distracted the attention of the guards, another literally threw him, by giving him a leg-up, over the high enclosure of barbed, which separated him from freedom.
He raced off in zigzags the other prisoners jostled the sentries who were shooting at him. His break was successful since he was able to reach Switzerland from where he sent a postcard to his ex-prison mates. A good sport, the camp commandant read out his card at roll-call and also had his belongings sent on to him.

This is how the story was told to me by my father.

The friendships which he forged at Colditz with Julien Kerignard and Roger Devernay remained strong and lifelong. Today all three are dead.
Julien was my godfather.
Odette Devernay was godmother to my brother Pierre.

My father was born on the 6th June 1915 in Poitiers and died on the 15th July 1996 at Falaise.

The bakground pictures of these pages show the stamps appearing on the back of the photos of Colditz.

According to the notes on the back of it, the photo opposite is that of Father Congar. It was not taken at Colditz but in Oflag X

October 2001

A few weeks after putting these pages on the net I had the great surprise and joy of receiving two completely unexpected messages.

The first came from Michel Boucherat, the son of Jean Boucherat, the other escapee in the third escape, which was “the successful one”. This message is extremely moving since whilst Michel Boucherat knew his father had made several attemps at escape, he did not know the circumstances of the successful one. His father preferred to keep things to himself. He sent me the photo shown opposite, of his father at the time.

The second came to me from Dominique Devernay, eldest son of Roger Devernay. We had met each other when we were children when our parents got together but we had lost all contact for a very long time. This story stirs up memories and emotions of one time or another.

It was by chance surfing the net that both of them had come across these pages. These have been included in data for search engines and had absolutely nothing to do with me.

February 2002

I have not found the book “Le Grand Refus” about which my father speaks, but through the internet, M.Adrien Touch brought to my attention the fact that there is a reference to the book in the catalogue of the National Library.

Type: printed text, monograph
Author: Albert Maloire
Title: Colditz, Le Grand Refus (Printed text)/ Albert Maloire
Publication: Vincennes: le Condor, 1982
Printer/bookbinder: 92-Montrouge:Dalex

Material description: 430p. illustrated with an illustrated cover: 24 cm.
Note(s): the cover also bears the words “Captives, yes, beaten, never”- choice of documents in the appendix-Bibliographie. pages 427-428
Subject: Escapes-Germany
World War ( !939-1945)-Prisonners and prisons of the Germans
World War ( !939-1945)- Personal French stories
Colditz (Germany)-Castle

ISBN2-86229-017-3 (Br):98F
Notice number: FRBNF34733307

Hurra for the Web, Hurra for Internet!

September 2002

Having been told about it by an internet user, I was able to purchase a copy of the book “Le Grand Refus” on the net.

February 2003

Mail from M. Frederic Mortimore:

“Surfing the internet with my brother’s computer, I was most interested to come across your site.
My grandfather, Marceau Roger PETIT (Reserve Lieutenant) was interned at Colditz and I have today in my possession a certain number of documents and information.
First of all in response to your question about the three people in the photograph, Father Congar is indeed there but he is not the figure in the centre. He is on the right, wearing a forage cap. I do not know the names of the other two. The wooden barracks do indeed correspond to those found in the photos of XC (Lubeck), a camp to which the French were transferred in July 1943 when Colditz became a camp exclusively for English prisonners.
I have a copy of the book “Colditz le grand refus” by Albert Maloire, which was given to me by my grandfather. It is a book written by this journalist-historian at the request of the Association of ex-Internees of Colditz. He made up the different aspects of the book from accounts told him by various people.

I also have a certain number of other works about Colditz.

I can also tell you that I have at last finished a document in “word” with text and pictures under the “supervision” of my grandfather. So I had explained to me the captivity of French officers in high security camps during the second world war, following the life of a French officer. Starting off with 5 photos, which I had saved and under which I had hoped to write captions, I ended up with 305 pages by collecting other photos, documents, published works, unpublished works, etc.!! I managed to collate this work which I gave as a present to my grandfather on the 31st December 2001. He died on the following 22nd January, at the age of 90.
I can, if you wish, let you have a CD of this.
Perhaps we can exchange information and documents?
Hoping to hear from you shortly,

Frederic MORTIMORE

We have subsequently exchanged emails on the subject. M. Mortimore let me have a copy of the document he got together about the story of his grandfather. It is a 300 pages long and is a remarkable work by a historian who has gathered historic facts which are dated and verified. The work contains among other matter a bibliography of books on Colditz.

December 2003

In the month of June of this year I came across by chance in a second hand shop in the Haute Marne a copy of the book by Andre Perrin “ Escaped prisonner of war via Colditz”. I know that M. Mortimore mentions this book in the comprehensive bibliography of his work does not possess a copy. So I bought it without hesitation with the intention of lending it to him. Andre Perrin is a professional career soldier who aims first of all at his peers. The wording of the book is sometimes fastidious, but nevertheless a paragraph at the foot of page 147 stupifies me!

ESCAPED PRISONER OF WAR VIA COLDITZ 147

...of Cap Matapan on the Italian fleet….Schut! Another time four Canadians from the Dieppe raid revealed to us that they had been chained together for four months, a measure of the degree of bitterness (29) that Operation Jubilee had inflicted on the “Aryan race”. Notwithstanding it was a mission of sacrifice, without the experience of which the D-Day landings of two years later perhaps would have been more costly. A commando attack less spectacular than that of the Saint-Nazaire raid in terms of the mission itself.
Canadians are almost compatriots with us, as little British as possible and they do not hide the feeling that they like living in our company.
Also we love their manner of speaking old French. I re-learn certain insults or spicy expressions which have been lost over the centuries. For this reason their landings must have been accompanied by battle cries of “Christ” and “petit sens mauvais!”
I was enchanted also to hear that a young girl was invited to dance with the words “Madmemoiselle, permettez que je vous enfile”. Which for those with dirty minds translated as “ que je vous emmene dans la file”!

At the same time news from the BBC came through Arthur, a radio which the Guigues team smuggled into the camp in little pieces. It was magnificently camouflaged in the thickness of a wall on the last floor of the Kellerhaus, artistically decorated with a map of Africa, which was controled by Dakar. The room also served as a presbytery for our priests. Where else better to hide a secret? A hiding place only an informer could betray. Unfortunately this is exactly what happened. The “mystery” which gave Eggers white hair, was revealed to him by a collaborating curate nurse informer. (31) who hated Jeanjean and was jealous of Guigues. This Judas got his “thirty pieces of silver” since the Germans set him up with a rotten job and then liberated him in secret. And this is how Eggers took Dakar at last in December 1942! After the war he refused to give us the name of the informer K, until…the year 2000!

(29) The prisonners of war from the Dieppe raid paid dearly for the Saint-Nazaire raid.
(30) We preferred to think this rather than imagine a useless psychological operation by Churchill to placate Stalin!
(31) After the war there was naturally opposition to his ordination.

The highlighted passages are to be put alongside the following information taken from my father’s notes:

Julien, our nurse, looked after me as best he could…..
It has since been said and written that “the one who “indicated” the hiding place to the Germans was one of us….

Below is a photo of Julien Kerignard in his curate’s outfit. According to my father it was a taboo subject. My father also told me that Julien remained silent over his reasons for abandoning the priesthood after the war. When he escaped, my father sought help for Julien who was in Paris, liberated on health grounds.

It is to put it mildly that all this is very troubling and since then there is hardly any doubt in my mind that Julien Kerignard , my godfather, is probably the “K” mentioned in Perrin’s book.

Mars 2004

Dave Minett, the very nice englisman who have translated these pages give me a copy of the book writen by Henry Chancellor in 2001 "COLDITZ the definitive history". As the "Grand refus", of Albert Maloire, this book is a summary of the facts knowns about the story of Colditz, based on the evidence provided by 71 witnesses.

This is what one can read page 251 :

with this footnote page 424 :

I am absolutely certain that my father never knew this. Did he have suspicions? What would have happened had he known?

In any case it is absolutely out of the question for me to make any judgement on facts of long ago and which took place in such special circumstances.

Julien married after the war. He had three children. The eldest, who would have had the same age as me, tragically died at the age of 6, knocked down by a bus on leaving school.

I deliberated for a long, long time before relating these facts here. On reflection it seemed very difficult for me to hide them considering their importance in my father’s story. In doing so I hope sincerely not to offend loved ones who would learn of them through these pages. In his book Perrin refers to the date fixed by Captain Eggers, the German security officer who discovered Arthur, to keep the secret until the year 2000.
I realise that the name is today certainly known by a few people.

Whatever, for me Julien is still the kind godfather with the wonderful Marseille accent who made such great "bouillabaisse".

Philippe Pallu