French made-for-TV film about the fate of the University of Strasbourg and of its academics during WWII
L'université résistanteDocumentaire - 56' - 1999 - Réalisation Barcha Bauer - Production L. Lanterne/France 3
Le 1 er septembre 1939, Strasbourg est déclarée ville ouverte. Quatre cent trente mille personnes prennent le chemin de l'exil vers le sud de la France. L'université de Strasbourg, avec ses bibliothèques, ses instituts de recherche, son administration, ses professeurs et ses étudiants, se replie à Clermont-Ferrand en novembre 1939 pour l'ouverture des cours. C'est le point de départ d'une histoire commune entre les deux universités et les deux régions qui dure près de cinq ans. La politique collaborationniste du gouvernement de Vichy crée un mouvement de refus dans le monde de l'éducation qui prépare les jeunes étudiants à la résistance. Certains commencent par distribuer des journaux clandestins, d'autres deviennent agents de liaison, d'autres encore participent à la bataille du mont Mouchet en juin-juillet 1944. Un grand nombre d'entre eux sont arrêtés, torturés et déportés. Les étudiants restés en Alsace essaient pour leur part de résister à la nazification de la région en refusant le travail obligatoire. Ils sont envoyés au camp de Schirmeck. Beaucoup rejoignent l'université libre de Clermont-Ferrand tandis que d'autres sont enrôlés de force dans la Wehrmacht (140 000 personnes parmi lesquelles 40 000 trouvent la mort et 30 000 sont blessées). Le film retrace ces événements douloureux à travers le témoignage des derniers survivants.
"As seen in a 56 minute-long documentary, directed by Barcha Bauer and produced by L. Lanterne and French (government) TV channel 3: On September 1, 1939, Strasbourg was declared to be an open city. Four hundred and thirty thousand people took the road to exile, toward the South of France. The University of Strasbourg, with its libraries, its research insitutes, its administration, its professors and its students fell back on Clermont Ferrand for the opening of classes in November, 1939. This was the starting point for a five year relationship between the two universities and the two regions. The collaborationist policies of the Vichy government created a refusal movement in the academic world,preparing young students for resistance. Some began to distribute clandestine newspapers, others become secret agents,still others participated in the battle of Mont-Mouchet in June and July 1944. A great many of them were arrested, tortured, and deported. Those students remaining in Alsace, for their part, tried to resist the nazification of the region by refusing to work for the Germans. They were sent to Schirmeck. Many then went to the University of Clermont-Ferrand, others were conscripted into the Wehrmacht, (140,00 of whom 40,00 died and 30,00 were wounded) This film retraces these painful enents through the testimony of the last survivors. "
Translation Copyright © Diana Mara Henry.
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This is the station where prisoners bound for Natzweiler were unloaded from trains amid vicious savagery and violence. Photo and text Copyright © Diana Mara Henry.
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A school group, seen sitting on the terrraces where the prisoner barracks stood,trying to take it all in. A guard tower stands behind them. Photo and text Copyright © Diana Mara Henry
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Annual commemoration ceremonies in June include placing a rose at the foot of each gravestone in the cemetery, for French victims of the Nazis who died in the myriad concentration camps.Photo and text Copyright © Diana Mara Henry.
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( 3 / 11912 )The inscription reads:"Manfred Rosenbaum, political prisoner, died for France, on May 22, 1945, at Buchenwald." Photo and text Copyright © Diana Mara Henry.
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