Who was François Verdier, resistance fighter from Toulouse whose death we commemorate this Sunday
Through Lucie Fraisse
Published on
Every year for 78 years, a small ceremony is organized in the forest of Bouconnenear Toulouse, the Sunday following January 27. A ceremony under the aegis of the Friends of Forain François Verdier association, which pays tribute to this famous Toulouse resistance fighter on the spot where he was assassinated by the Gestapo in 1944.
Elerika Leroy is the current President of the association. She is also the author of François Verdier: The honest man, the resistant, the unifier, a biography dedicated to the Toulouse resistance fighter published by Privat editions. Interview.
News: Who was Francois Verdier?
Elerika Leroy: “He is a Toulousain born in Ariège, from a modest family. He developed an agricultural machinery company in Toulouse which employed around forty people. He was also very involved in civil life: he was notably a judge in the of commerce but also linked to the League of Human Rights where he did a lot to defend the Spanish Republican refugees. He was also part of Freemasonry, which was his great passion.
How did he end up in the resistance?
EL: “He had participated in the First World War in 1918 and had been very marked by it. In 1939, he was called back to the flag but reformed. The defeat was a trauma for him. In 1940, with a group of friends, he founded the group “Liberté, alité, fraternité”. He also frequented an anti-fascist bookstore located rue du Languedoc and run by Silvio Trentin. From then on he used his connections to help all those who were persecuted by the Vichy regime. He really inspired confidence in the Germans and was thus able to become a specialist in the infiltration of public administrations.”
“François Verdier really inspired confidence, he thus became a specialist in the infiltration of public administrations”
Over time, François Verdier took on more and more importance in the resistance…
EL: In 1943, Charles de Gaulle wanted to unify the resistance. In Toulouse and in the Midi-Pyrénées, it’s complicated, there are a lot of rivalries. Finally François Verdier will be the one who will make the most consensus: he becomes leader of the United Resistance Movements in Midi-Pyrénées. It was then that he preferred “Forain” as a resistance alias, inspired by a book by cartoonist Jean-Louis Forain which is on the chimney of the place where he is when asked to be. a new name.”
He will be denounced in 1943…
EL: “Yes, we know that he was denounced by another resistance fighter. On the night of December 13 to 14, 1943, the Gestapo carried out a major operation: 110 resistance fighters from the region were arrested, including François Verdier. He was taken to headquarters from the Gestapo in Toulouse, on the side of the Jardin des Plantes. He is interrogated and acts as if he does not light up. He will be tortured for 44 days and will never speak: no arrest resulted from his.”
How did he die ?
EL: “On January 26, 1944, the majority of his comrades arrested with him were deported, but not him. He was shot in the forest of Bouconne, with a bullet in the abdomen. The two Gestapo policemen who killed him also placed a French grenade in his mouth to make believe that he had been assassinated by resistance fighters.
François Verdier could be identified because we found his prison diary in one of his pockets.
A conference to better understand François Verdier
Saturday January 28, 2023, Elerika Leroy offers a conference at the museum of resistance and deportation, in Toulouse.
From a diary that belonged to François Verdier normally kept in the museum, it will return to the life of the resistant.
Free conference and all public, at 4 p.m. Reservation recommended by email [email protected] or by phone 05 34 33 17 40.
The memory of François Verdier endures through time. How do you explain it?
EL: “François Verdier sacrificed everything for his ideal: his family, his business, his money, his life… The conditions of his death also made him a hero.
And then seven months after his death, Toulouse was released. Almost everyone had forgotten François Verdier. His friends then decide to go and take down the signs from the alleys of Marshal Pétain to replace them with “allées François Verdier”. And in January 1945, the first ceremony in his memory took place in the forest of Bouconne. The desire to maintain his memory really comes from his resistant friends who organized themselves into an association to remember through him what the resistance was.
Practical information :
Tribute ceremony to François Verdier, at his memorial in the Bouconne forest, from 11 a.m. on Sunday January 29, 2023.
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