The Time to F Ight Will Come Communicate to Resist 1940-1945 Exhibition 1 St March > 24 December 2013 Press Kit

… baissez donc les paupières … les sanglots longs des violons de

l’automne … écoute mon coeur qui pleure … il a une voix de fausset …

l’heure des combats viendra … on connaît l’oiseau par son bec …

il fait chaud à suez … la secrétaire est jolie …

l’arrosoir est percé … l’héroïsme, c’est vaincre

sa peur … la peinture se détache

par écailles … les dés sont sur le tapis … the time to f ight will come communicate to resist 1940-1945 exhibition 1 st March > 24 December 2013 Press kit

European Centre of Deported Resisters

Site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp 67130 NATZWILLER • www.struthof.fr • 03 88 47 44 59 the time to fight will come communicate to resist 1940-1945

Underground radio emitting outdoors

Underground radio

… l’heure des combats viendra … … the time to f ight will come … coded message sent over BBC radio waves on 5 June 1944 to launch sabotage operations in preparation of the Allied landing in Normandy.

By retaining this symbolic phrase as the title of our 2013 exhibition, we want to illustrate the important role played by communications in the Resistance, and to accompany the annual theme of the National Resistance and Deportation Contest, «Communicate to Resist». The exchange of information may appear to be simple in today’s society. The use of mobile phones and internet have got us into the habit of instantaneous communications and a continuous flow of news. That was far from being the case in 1940-1945. Of course France had numerous newspapers as well as five million wireless radios. But the telephone was a rare commodity and, of course, television did not yet exist. Moreover, the Vichy regime – with the help of the Occupation authorities – did everything they could to limit the freedom of the press, to impose censorship and to track down those who tried to express divergent opinions. And so activists in the Resistance had to find ingenious methods to transmit intelligence to London, thus facilitating Allied military operations, or to raise consciousness in Occupied France by distributing leaflets or underground newspapers. These apparently simple actions were extremely perilous; a lot of resisters paid for them with their lives. The Natzweiler-Struthof camp was the final destination of a large number of them. To render homage to all combatants of intelligence and information, the European Centre of Deported Resisters conceived an exhibition which is unique in its kind. It presents two underground networks which consecrated themselves during the war to the task of transmitting military information to the Allies: the Alliance Network – 107 of whose members were savagely assassinated in Struthof on 1st September 1944 – and the Sussex Plan, which gave considerable support to the Allied armies at the time of the D-Day Landing. The presentation is completed with an exceptional collection of underground or military emitter and receptor radios, all of which are operational. It also features weapons and materials for intelligence, espionage and parachuting.

2 Through them, let the memory live on of those women and men whose voices – in the obscurity of Occupied France – were the voices of freedom.

Frédérique Neau-Dufour, Director, CERD Step into history through the footprints of two men

As the commitment to act against the occupier and against Vichy was first and foremost a personal choice, linked to the family history of the volunteers involved, to the education they received and to the values they acquired, we have chosen to base this exhibition on individual examples. They facilitate, for the public of young visitors, a fascinating walk down the path of history. Among the thousands of resisters and their respective stories, we retained those of two men. One of them jointed the Alliance Network, the other was recruited for the Sussex Plan. One of them was a family man, the other was 21 years of age. One of them was assassinated in Struthof, the other came out of his ordeal alive and got married after the war. The first one is Jacques Stosskopf, the second one is Georges Soulier. Through their experience, their personal belongings, the letters of their loved ones and their personal photos, they lead us down the path of their underground action and their respective network…

Jacques Stosskopf, a maritime engineer posted in Lorient in 1940 – member of the Alliance Network – transmitted to London intelligence on German submarines which came to port in Lorient’s naval installations. Arrested, he was assassinated in Struthof with 106 other members of Alliance in 1944.

Georges Soulier was recruited by the secret services of the Allies and of the Free French forces. He joined 130 other French off icers in a organisation baptised «Sussex». Trained in England in the techniques of 3 intelligence, radio transmission and underground work, he was parachuted to France under a false identity. His mission: send radio messages to London with information on the movement of Nazi troops at the time of the Landing.

The tools of the perfect secret agent A collection of objects

Thanks to loans of private and institutional collectors, about 50 objects are presented in the exhibition. Colt 45, gas-launching pen, cyanide pill, parachuting container, parachute, Sten submachine gun, false identity papers…: they all belonged to intelligence agents, to radio transmitters or to soldiers engaged in the combats of the Second World War. A number of these objects were parachuted by the Allies to the Resistance.

Many thanks to the Musée de l’Ordre de la Libération (Museum of the Order of Liberation) in Paris, to the Musée Sussex in Hochfelden (Bas-Rhin), as well as to Mister Maurice Ancel.

On the 1st of June 1944, Georges Soulier was about to be parachuted in Occupied France: They gave me an identity card made out in the name that I had chosen, as well as various papers, resupplying cards which I had to learn how to use… Then they gave me all the material that I could need for my mission. Amongst other things two radios, each in a little leather case, a Colt 45 pistol and different gadgets: a gas cartridge pen enabling me to momentarily blind a policeman if he got a little too curious, a phosphorescent ball the size of a ping pong ball, a very flat flask, as well as a round metal box containing pastilles enabling me to resist fatigue and last but not least a cyanide pill to swallow in case of arrest and torture, to avoid talking. Extract of Souvenirs 1922-1992 by Georges Soulier

Georges Soulier’s false identity card 1944

Firing training for Jedburgh 4 agents, using Colt 45 pistols. Spring of 1944 in Saint Alban

The Second World War was a war of radio waves. Largely used by Nazi propaganda, the radio soon became an arm of the Resistance: General de Gaulle’s famous call to resist made on BBC radio on 18 June is a notable example, as well as radio programm animated from London by activists of Free France. As for resisters and Allied intelligence agents, radio waves facilitated the transmission of urgent and confidential messages. Thanks to emitter and transmitter apparatuses received by parachuting, the volume of messages sent and received increased as the war went on. But the resisters and Allied agents who used them paid a dear price in terms of repression: Abwehr developed its detection technique of emissions (radiogoniometry) and decimated the ranks of radio operators… Underground radios camouflaged in a briefcase, American military transmission radios or wireless radios of that period: the various emitter and receiver radios exhibited are all still functional!

Many thanks to the Musée de l’Ordre de la Libération in Paris, to the Amicale de la Guerre Électronique de l’Armée de Terre (the Army’s Electronic War Memorial Association) in Mutzig, to the Musée de l’Abri (Bomb Shelter Museum) in Hatten, as well as to Mister Maurice Ancel.

Mister Maurice Ancel, one of the radio collectors, will do a demonstration for the general public on 28 April, then for students on two different dates, on reservation.

Jedburgh Plan radio operators during training

Underground Norwegian radio with a kit dissimulated in a book, a clothes iron 5 and in a sofa leg 1941

… baissez donc les paupières … les sanglots longs des violons de Opening day of the exhibition l’automne … écoute mon coeur qui pleure … il a une voix de fausset …

… on connaît l’oiseau par son bec … l’heure des combats viendra Sunday 28 April 2013

la secrétaire est jolie … National Day for Remembrance of Victims of Deportation il fait chaud à suez …

l’héroïsme, c’est vaincre 4 pm: commemorative ceremony at the Deportation l’arrosoir est percé … Memorial – Struthof la peinture se détache sa peur … In the presence of several hundred Young Volunteer Firemen

les dés sont sur le tapis … gabrielle vous of the Bas-Rhin Department par écailles … 4:30 pm: Opening of the exhibition – European Centre envoie ses amitiés …

I. of Deported Resisters

l’heure R 49e - Pommiès Franc s des combats In the presence of Mister Georges Soulier, a member of the viendra Corp Collection © ECPAD : 1940-1945 photo - Pistoleros les Sussex Network during the war, and in the presence communiquer pour résister graphisme : agence : graphisme of descendants of Jacques Stosskopf.

CENTRE EUROPÉEN DU RÉSISTANT DÉPORTÉ

SITE DE L’ANCIEN CAMP DE CONCENTRATION DE NATZWEILER EXPOSITION • 03 88 47 44 59 • WWW.STRUTHOF.FR 1er mars > 23 décembre 2013 67130 NATZWILLER FR/DE/ENG

A day for remembrance

The National Day for Remembrance of Victims of Deportation honours the memory of all deported persons, without distinction, and renders homage to their sacrifice. The purpose of this day is to help us recall this major historical tragedy and the lessons which can be learned from it, so that such acts may never take place again. This day is commemorated each year on the last Sunday of April.

The ceremony on 29 April 2012

6 Site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp

European Centre of Deported Resisters

European Centre of Deported Resisters Site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp

The Natzweiler concentration camp opened in May 1941 in the locality known as Struthof (Alsace). Destined to provide the Reich with slave labour for its industry, it especially rounded up political deportees who were arrested throughout Europe because of their anti-Nazi activities. It also interned those deported on racial motives (Jews, Tziganes). Within the main camp, but also in the 70 annexed camps which were run by it, extermination took place by hard labour and hunger, by executions, by pseudo-scientific medical experiments and by inhuman treatment. With a rate of mortality of 40%, the Natzweiler concentration camp was amongst the most murderous of the SS system. With the advance of the Allies, the Nazis evacuated all deported persons from the main camp as of September 1944. When the Americans discovered Struthof in November 1944, it was entirely empty. Fifty-two thousand (52,000) deported persons had gone through the gates of this camp (either the Natweiler-Struthof camp or one of the 70 outside camps). Close to 22,000 people lost their lives in these premises. Within the old camp, visitors can discover four shacks, including the prison and the crematory oven, as well as a historical museum. Situated almost a mile (one and a half kilometres) further down, visitors can also see the gas chamber. The European Centre of Deported Resisters. In a vast space of almost 800 square feet (2,000 m2), it houses a permanent exhibition consecrated to Nazism and the Resistance, educational rooms and a temporary exhibition area. The entire complex covers over 11 acres (4.5 hectares) and takes two hours to visit. 7 Exhibition Management Committee Frédérique Neau-Dufour, assisted by René Chevrolet and Sandrine Garcia

GRAPHIC CONCEPTION AND PRODUCTION Agence les Pistoleros PRINTING OF COMMUNICATION DOCUMENTS Pôle national de l’imprimerie de Tulle Translation the time AGIS Mounting the exhibition, adjusting, lighting to f ight Jean Rémy, Marc Frering, Jean-Luc Felder and Patrick Berbache will come Logistics communicate to resist 1940-1945 Anny Lausmann, Elisabeth Doberva, Virginie Letalnet Exhibition in French, German and English Management and orders for material Pôle des sépultures de guerre et des hauts lieux de la mémoire nationale, Metz

Press contact Michaël Verry 03 88 47 44 59 [email protected] Get to know more on www.struthof.fr

We would like to express our gratitude to: Georges Soulier, member of the Sussex Network during the war Dominique Soulier, Musée du Pays de la Zorn. Plan Sussex 1944 Elisabeth Meysembourg Stosskopf, daughter of Jacques Stosskopf François Stosskopf,son of Jacques Stosskopf Mireille Hinckert, President of the Bas-Rhin Departmental Committee of «Souvenir Français» (French Memory) Maurice Ancel, collector and radio amateur Eric Kersch, Vice-President of the Army’s Electronic War Memorial Association in Mutzig Helwig Schmied, Musée de l’abri d’Hatten Pommiès - 49e RI. Corps Franc Collection Vladimir Trouplin, Curator of the Musée de : ECPAD © ECPAD : l’Ordre de la Libération Bernard Veit Cyrille Le Quellec, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation (Foundation for the Memory of Deportation) European Centre of Deported Resisters Philippe Chapillon, collector - photo Pistoleros agence les :

Site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, Alsace graphisme Contact : 03 88 47 44 59 www.struthof.fr

The Struthof site is open 7 days a week, including on holidays. 1st March to 15 April and 16 October to 23 December: 9 am-5 pm - Gas chamber: 10 am-12:30 pm and 2-5 pm 16 April-15 October: 9 am-6:30 pm - Gas chamber: 10 am-12:30 pm and 2-5 pm. Last admissions an hour before closing - Annual closing from Christmas to the end of February Before coming for at visit, please inquire at 03 88 47 44 67.