Guy Môquet

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Guy Môquet (26 April 1924 — 22 October 1941) was a young French Communist militant. During the German occupation of France during World War II, he was taken hostage by the Nazis and executed by firing squad in retaliation for attacks on Germans by the French Resistance. Môquet came down in history as one of the symbols of the French Resistance.

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[edit] Family Background

Guy Môquet was the son of the Communist député of the 17th arrondissement of Paris, Prosper Môquet. The French Communist Party was dissolved by Édouard Daladier in September 1939. Prosper Môquet was subsequently arrested on 10 October, 1939, stripped of his mandate in February, 1940, and later deported to Algeria. Henri, the brother of Prosper, was concierge at the seat of the Communist party. By the end of the summer of 1940, he was a member of the party’s clandestine forces.

[edit] Biography

Pétain announce the execution
Pétain announce the execution
The General Otto von Stülpnagel too
The General Otto von Stülpnagel too

Guy Prosper Eustache Môquet was born on April 26, 1924 in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.[1] He studied at the Lycée Carnot and joined the Communist Youth Movement. After the occupation of Paris by the Germans and the installation of the Vichy government, Môquet was arrested by the French police as he distributed flyers in his neighbourhood denouncing the new government and demanding the liberation of its prisoners. He was arrested on 13 October 1940, in the Métro station Gare de l'Est by French police who were looking for Communist militants. The police behaved in a friendly way towards him in the hopes that he would reveal the names of his father’s friends[citation needed].

Imprisoned in Fresnes Prison, then in Clairvaux, he was later transferred to the camp at Châteaubriant, where other Communist militants were detained.

On 20 October 1941, the commanding officer of the German occupation forces in Loire-Atlantique, Karl Hotz, was assassinated by three communist resisters. Pierre Pucheu, Interior Minister of the Pétain government, chose Communist prisoners to be given as hostages “in order to avoid letting 50 good French people get shot.” His selection comprised 18 imprisoned in Nantes, 27 at Châteaubriant, and 5 from Nantes who were imprisoned in Paris.

Two days later, the 27 prisoners at Châteaubriant were shot in three groups. They refused blindfolds, and died crying out “Vive la France” (“Long live France”). Guy Môquet, the youngest, was executed at 4PM.

Copy of his last message
Copy of his last message

Before being shot, Môquet had written a letter to his parents. His younger brother, Serge - 12 years old at the time - was traumatised by the death of Guy and survived him only by a few days.[citation needed]

[edit] Legacy

Guy Môquet quickly came down as one of the emblematic heroes of the French resistance and of the Communist Party, partly because of his youth and partly because of his now-famous final letter.

In homage to Guy Môquet, a street and a Métro station in Paris were named after him in 1946. Many other place names across France also bear his name. Châteaubriant dedicated a high school to him.

Louis Aragon dedicated to him, along with three other resistants (Gabriel Péri, Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves, and Gilbert Dru, altogether two Christians and two Communists), his poem “La rose et le réséda.” This poem contained the line “Celui qui croyait au Ciel / Celui qui n’y croyait pas”. (He who believed in Heaven \ He who believed not).

[edit] Bibliography

  • Albert Ouzoulias, Les Bataillons de la Jeunesse, Éditions Sociales, 1972, ISBN 2209053722;
  • Pierre-Louis Basse, Guy Môquet, une enfance fusillée, Stock, 2000;
  • Articles Prosper Moquet, Henri Môquet, Charles Michels, Jean-Pierre Timbaud; from Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français (le Maitron), Éditions Ouvrières.
  • Lettres des fusillés de Châteaubriant, Amicale de Châteaubriand Voves-Rouillé, 1989.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Note sent to the Central Archives of the Paris Police Prefecture on October 16, 1940, published by Patrick Thiébaut in Guy Môquet, un symbole, National Centre of Educational Documentation, October 2007. (French)

[edit] External links