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Détail

  • Nom
    Gourvily massacre
  • Date
    1944-08-05
  • Lieu
    QUIMPER
  • Contribution
    Crêperie Le Rayon Vert
  • ID
    1770.1881

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Memorials
Gourvily massacre
Gourvily massacre

On Saturday, August 5, 1944 around 4:30 pm, 4 Resistance fighters and a Quimper family
Jean-Louis LE JEUNE, 67 years old.
Anne-Marie LE JEUNE née CUZON, 64 years old.
Marie-Renée LE JEUNE née LE QUILLEC, 33 years old
Marie-Anne LE JEUNE épouse TOULLEC, 32 years old.

Testimony of Monsieur René Toullec son of Marie-Anne LE JEUNE:

I was born in Gourvily in December 1940. I lived there with my sister, born in 1936, my parents and my maternal grandparents until August 5, 1944. The house was located on the road to Brest, about 4 km from Quimper. Like many country businesses, it housed a refreshment bar, grocery store, public telephone and even a gas station. The business was run by my grandmother, assisted by my mother. My grandfather had been a farmhand for many years. He had served throughout the 1914-1918 war. My father was drafted in September 1939 and taken prisoner in June 1940. He was discharged from captivity in November 1942. He was always required to carry an "ausweis" written on one side in German and on the other in French, and to report to the kommandantur in Quimper once a month. The ausweis specified that he could be sent back to Germany at any time, and that any act hostile to the occupying forces would be punishable by death. He was supposed to go to work at the Saupiquet factory, but when he turned up he was told he wasn't needed. So he went back to work on his parents' farm (Beg-ar-Menez Traoñ), as he had done before the war. He went there every morning and came back in the evening. The farm was off the Brest road, about 2 km from Gourvily. It was located between Penhoat and le Stangala

On the morning of August 5, 1944, my mother cycled to Quimper to do some shopping.

Here's an excerpt from my sister's speech on August 6, 1994, at the commemoration of the tragedy:

"Certainly, living near a major thoroughfare, we had felt the tension building among the occupiers.
The day before, the Germans were already setting up a barbed-wire roadblock at the bottom of the Kerfuntun road.

That same morning, on returning from her Saturday shopping in Quimper, Maman told us about the fire at the prefecture, while congratulating herself on having made it home safely.
After lunch, at our mother's request, worried about the latent danger but restrained by the presence of a few customers, we left the house for our paternal grandparents' farm.
Our cousins accompanied us and were to bring back flour for the crêpes. She even offered to join us in the evening.
We didn't say "goodbye", we never saw each other again..."

Our parents were going about their business, when at around 4pm, eight resistance fighters from the compagnie de Briec, on their way to Saint-Denis, stopped to quench their thirst at the buvette. Joseph Dorval, owner of the Parc-Poulic farm located about 1.5 km north of Gourvily, was cycling on the Brest road towards Gourvily.
At 700 m from Gourvily, He was overtaken by 4 trucks each carrying about 20 German soldiers equipped with mitrailleuses and rifles ready to fire. J. Dorval had barely gone 400 m when the fusillade began. He dove into the ditch and saw what was happening. The Germans had seen 2 resistance fighters with weapons slung over their shoulders carrying a crate of beer. So we can't say that the resistance fighters had set up an ambush. They were the ones who were surprised. J. Dorval's testimony is corroborated by that of François Trellu, who lived at the entrance to the town of Quimper and wrote a document recounting what he saw or heard on August 5, 1944 (This document was published in the Quimper edition of Ouest-France on February 25, 2004. In it, Mr. Trellu recounts the words spoken to him by the quartermaster who commanded the Resistance group at Gourvily).
My mother, aunt and grandmother were fought in front of the house, on the side facing the road to Brest. The Germans threw incendiary grenades into the house.
My grandfather then came out on the Loc'h road side and was also shot.
My aunt Marie-Renée, who lived a few hundred yards away, arrived to help with the afternoon's work. She had four children aged from 4 and a half to 10.
Three Resistance fighters were also killed and a fourth, wounded, did not survive his injuries.

Testimony of Monsieur René Toullec
Contribution and photo credit Crêperie Le Rayon Vert

 
Gourvily massacre
Gourvily massacre.
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Gourvily massacre

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