Mémorial de l’Oppression. Fascicule n°1 – Mémorial de l’Oppression. Fascicule no. 1 – “Memory of the Repression – Booklet No. 1” (no subsequent booklets were published) – Published by the Commissariat de la République, Région Rhône-Alpes – Numbered copy. A documentary report on the Nazi war crimes in Lyon during the final weeks of the German occupation in France. Published under the auspices of the Republic’s police authority. The report is accompanied by dozens of harsh photos depicting victims who were tortured and murdered by the Nazis in the final weeks of the occupation. Copy no. 502 out of 1,100 issued.
After the liberation of the city of Lyon in August 1944, Yves Farge (the Regional Republican Commissioner) initiated the establishment of a documentation service called Mémorial de l’Oppression (“Memory of the Repression”), aimed at gathering evidence of Nazi crimes in France during the final weeks of the occupation. Leading the initiative was Dr. Pierre Mazaud – a forensic physician who survived the massacre at Saint-Genis-Laval after being imprisoned in Montluc Prison. The present booklet, published in April 1945, documents the war crimes committed by the Nazis in the Lyon area and the Ain department. It includes testimonies from survivors and witnesses, medical and legal reports, as well as harsh photos of tortured bodies, mass graves, and execution sites. Among the events documented are: the executions at Bellecour, Nazi terror in Bron, the murders on Tronchet Street, and the killings on Desjardins Street. Montluc Prison served as a center for torture and executions by the Gestapo. The booklet includes survivor testimonies describing the torture, along with documentation of cells, torture instruments, graffiti left by prisoners, and more. The booklet served as a legal documentation tool compiling crimes that had not been published up to that time and helped bring Nazi criminals to justice. Between August 17 and 21, 1944, approximately 100 Jews were murdered at the Bron airfield, near Lyon. They were shot and buried in mass graves. The photographs in the booklet depict the discovery of the graves and the exhumation of the bodies. On August 20, 1944, just days before Lyon’s liberation, Gestapo agents removed about 120 prisoners—mostly members of the Resistance—from Montluc Prison and led them to Fort de Côte-Lorette in Saint-Genis-Laval. There, they were executed in small groups. After the executions, the bodies were burned and the structure was blown up in an attempt to cover up the crime. Only one prisoner, René Varlan, managed to escape. The event is documented in detail in the booklet.
This is one of the earliest documented testimonies of Nazi crimes in France. The committee’s plan was to publish this booklet as the first in a series, but in fact, it remained the only one ever issued. No further booklets were printed.
[16], 185 pp. 31 cm. Tears to the spine. The body of the book is in very good condition.
