Silent Village (eBook)

Avril, Marie

Ran the Hôtel Avril after the death of her second husband. Her daughter, Marguerite Laurence, brought her husband Henri and their children to the village when Paris was occupied.

Avril, Michel

Wood merchant who also sold other fuels including petrol.

Bardet, Denise

Taught at the girls’ school and lived with her mother, Louise, and brother, Camille, in a nearby hamlet.

Beau, Joseph

Socialist mayor of the village from 1914 to 1941.

Beaubreuil, Martial

An escaped prisoner of war; he hid in the grocery store.

Beaubreuil, Maurice

Evaded obligatory work service (STO) by hiding in the Mercier store with his older brother.

Bélivier, Marcel

Son of a farmer in the hamlet of Les Brégères.

Bergmann, Joseph

Barber in the Café du Chêne. German and Jewish by birth, though most believed him to be Austrian.

Besson, Robert

Young veteran of the 1940 war whose family ran a textile shop.

Bielsa, Millán

Former medic; refugee from Spain sent as an inmate to the 643rd Groupe de Travailleurs Étrangers (GTE).

Binet, Andrée

Head of the girls’ school but absent in early 1944 due to a difficult pregnancy.

Biver, Gilberte

Refugee from Moselle; met Jean Henry, then a camp warden at the 643rd GTE, and moved with him to the Paris area.

Blum, Léon

Jewish politician; prime minister in the Popular Front (Front Populaire) government. Arrested by the Vichy authorities.

Bonnet, Madeleine

Ward of the state; worked as a live-in housemaid for Jeanne Mercier.

Borie, Mathieu

Builder from Limoges with a workshop in Oradour; part of a Resistance network.

Bouchoule, Léopold

One of the village’s bakers.

Brandy, Eugénie

Owner of the Café Central. Of her three daughters, Andrée worked at the tram station and Jeannine worked as a hairdresser and was married to mechanic Aimé Renaud. Youngest daughter Antoinette worked alongside her mother in the café and, like her mother, also sewed gloves.

Brissaud, Martial

Wheelwright who worked with his father on the western edge of the village.

Chapelle, Jean-Baptiste

Oradour’s long-serving priest.

Compain, Maurice

Pâtissier with a shop on the Champ de foire.

Coppenolle, Berthe and

Business partners from Roubaix who arrived as

Crombé, Jeanne

refugees with their families and moved into the La Lauze farm.

Coudert, Georges

Young police inspector based in Limoges.

Couty, Odette

Teacher brought in to replace Andrée Binet.

Couvidou, Germaine

Albert Valade’s sister; young mother of four who lived at the Valade tenant farm.

Dagoury, Mélanie

Owner of Le Restaurant de la Promenade and her late husband’s cement and masonry business.

Darnand, Joseph

Former soldier; created the Milice to combat the Resistance.

Darthout, Jean-Marcel

Part of the football team; aspired to be a teacher but had to find alternative work to avoid a call up to STO. His father, François, was a postal worker.

Denis, Léon

Wineseller, municipal councillor and leader of a musical society.

Desourteaux, André

Grandson of mayors Joseph Beau and Paul Desourteaux; son of grocers Emile and Alice.

Desourteaux, Hubert

Son of Paul; a mechanic with a garage on the main street.

Desourteaux, Paul

Former mayor; political opponent of Joseph Beau. Head of the special delegation, mayor in all but name, in 1944.

Doutre, Paul

Eldest of two brothers; hidden by his family when called up for STO in Germany.

Dupic, François and Jean

Brothers who each ran their own textile shop.

Filliol, Jean

Directeur général of the Deuxième service, the ‘action and information’ service – a kind of Gestapo of the French Milice.

Foussat, André

Miller from a nearby hamlet; served on the municipal council and ran the amateur dramatic society.

Freund-Valade, Marc

‘Prefect’ of the Haute-Vienne from September 1943.

Gaudy, Yvonne

Teenage girl who sewed gloves for the Saint-Junien factories.

de Gaulle, Charles

Leader of the Free French who left for London in June 1940.

Godfrin, Roger

Arrived with his family after the Moselle was cleared of Franco-phone elements; 7 years old in June 1944.

Gougeon, Fernand

Teacher in Moselle; taught in the school for refugees.

Guingouin, Georges

Former teacher and one of the first men to take to the maquis.

Hébras, Robert

Son of Jean, a former employee of the tramway, and Marie, who sewed for extra money. Aspired to be a pâtissier but circumstances led to him becoming a mechanic in Limoges. He had three sisters, two older than him, one a decade his junior.

Henry, Jean

Music teacher who became a guard at the Oradour camp. Met his wife, a refugee from Moselle, in Oradour.

Hyvernaud, Fernand

Dealer in farm animals whose house and barns were next to the church. His daughter Henriette Joyeux had married and moved away but visited Oradour with husband Marcel and baby son René.

Jakobowicz, David

Son of Jewish immigrants who became involved with the maquis.

Jakobowicz, Sarah

Hidden by Martial Machefer when her brother David’s clandestine activities placed the family in danger.

Kanzler, Joseph

Jewish man who stayed in the village with his family when most of the Schiltigheim evacuees returned north to a nazified Strasbourg.

Lamaud, Marie and Jean

Looked after various pupilles de l’assistance publique (wards of the state) at their Bellevue farm.

Lang, Jules and Jeanne

Jewish couple who came to Oradour from Bordeaux.

Laval, Pierre

Former lawyer who became head of the government under Pétain.

de Lavérine,

Owner of several properties in...