A heart-wrenching letter about the persecution of Jews in France written amidst the battles for the liberation of Limoges in late August 1944 by “The Partisan of Limoges, ” the renowned French resistance fighter Georges Guingouin, signed with his initials. The letter, addressed to an unknown recipient, was part of an effort to convey information about the situation in Limoges among members of the French resistance.
Text of the Letter:
“On August 26 and the following days, the arrest of all Jews who had sought refuge in France since 1936, the fury of the entire population of Limoges, terror ruled among Jewish circles…
Did you know that in the Paris area a concentration camp was established for Jewish children abducted from their parents, their names changed, and they are sent to Germany to be turned into Nazis? The Swiss government appealed to Vichy in protest against the German authorities, but the Vichy administration turns a deaf ear. By what cowardly robbers are we governed? After the jurors, it will be the Catholics, and so on… Where will we go? If we remain under Vichy control, we are lost. On the afternoon of August 28, traders… and Catholics said what we are doing to the Jews is an indescribable disgrace.
A Jewish woman we know threatens to commit suicide and has asked us to take her little, sweet daughter under our protection and to always defend her, at least until we are freed from this tyrant, Hitler, which will not take long. Freedom is advancing in great strides, and Limoges is 90% Gaullist. The heads of the legionaries are spreading the rumor among their forces that military recruitment against the English is imminent, but this is Laval’s ploy against the Boches, with the weapons to be turned against them at the chosen moment, to follow him with trust…”
The letter is signed with the initials G.G. (Georges Guingouin) and M.D.L. (Maquis du Limousin), the largest resistance group fighting for France’s liberation, led by Guingouin.
Georges Guingouin (1913–2005) was a French Communist Party (PCF) fighter who played a leading role in the French resistance as the head of the Maquis du Limousin. Born in Limoges, he worked as a teacher until the outbreak of World War II. Guingouin began his resistance activities by publishing a call for armed struggle against the Nazi occupation as early as 1940 and was appointed federal secretary of the Communist Party in the Haute-Vienne region. In January 1941, he published the first issue of the underground newspaper Le Travailleur Limousin. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Maquis, organizing fighter groups in the Châteauneuf-la-Forêt area.
In March 1943, he led the operation to blow up the Bussy-Varache bridge on the Limoges-Ussel railway line, disrupting German train movements. In July 1944, he commanded the Maquis forces in the Battle of Mont Gargan against German forces, a rare direct confrontation between the French resistance and the Wehrmacht. On August 21, 1944, Guingouin accepted the surrender of German forces in Limoges after surrounding the city with his troops, leading to its liberation with minimal bloodshed. After the war, he was elected mayor of Limoges in May 1945, serving until 1947. Guingouin remains one of the most prominent figures in the French resistance, widely respected for his role in freeing France from Nazi occupation. In the early 1950s, he was expelled from the French Communist Party due to ideological differences with its central leadership.
[2] pages, 26×21 cm. Very good condition.
