I used to live in Cockermouth, Cumbria which is twinned with the town of Marvejols in the Massif Central. In 1986, I was privileged to provide hospitality for two gentlemen in their seventies. One was named Marcel Pierrel, one of the most amazing people I have ever been lucky enough to meet. Marcel had been a lieutenant in the French army and was taken POW during the Fall of France. He escaped and made his way back to his native Alsace but was picked up by the Gestapo who roughed him up and had him sent to a much more secure camp in Pomerania. He escaped from here also and being from Alsace, spoke fluent German and made his way to Marvejols, which was at that time in the unoccupied Vichy zone.

By the time the Germans moved to occupy Vichy France, Marcel was the leader of the Resistance in Marvejols. In 1944, he was plotting with 5 others to blow up the Paris-Beziers railway viaduct and the main road through Marvejols linking Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand. One of their own people (nobody ever found out who) shopped them to the Gestapo and they were all arrested. He was atrociously tortured at Gestapo HQ in Montpellier and then deported to Buchenwald. After some time in Buchenwald he was sent to an even worse place - Dora, near Nordhausen, where the prisoners worked in underground tunnels to produce V1s and V2s. The death toll here was sickening - the prisoners were worked to death. Marcel's life was saved only because he spoke fluent German. One of the SS guards mentioned this to the Kommandant who had urgent need for an interpreter in the camp admin office, as so many French prisoners had been sent to Dora.

As the Russians and Americans advanced, things got much worse in the camp and as the Americans approached, those who were fit enough to walk were force-marched from the camp, those who failed to keep up were shot. Eventually, Marcel ended up at Belsen and very shortly afterwards he was liberated by the British, on April 15th 1945, weighing only 30 kilos. He almost died, as he had contracted TB and had to have a lung removed.

Eventually he was re-patriated to Marvejols and re-united with his wife Regine who for nearly two years, had no idea whether he was alive or dead.

He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, the Croix de Guerre, the Medaiile du Resistance and several other decorations, for being deported etc.

The following year, I stayed with Marcel and Regine and was shown around the area, where many memorials exist where the local Resistance had battles with the Germans, or where they had been executed. One of the worst atrocities took place at place called La Parade.
HERE you can see the National Monument to the Maquisard, it's not far from Marvejols.

Marcel took me to a Plaque unveiling ceremony at a former mental hospital. Here, wounded Resistance fighters were nursed back to health, under the very noses of the Germans who never suspected a thing. I spent about 4 hours there and had a very convivial meal, in the company of former Resistance figures, many of whom were well advanced in years. It was a great honour to shake the hands of people like Henri Cordesse, Gilbert de Chambrun and many others. In Marvejols today, there is the Place Henri Cordesse and the local Comprehensive has been re-named College Marcel Pierrel.
Before I left, I was presented with a book "Dora - La cimitiere du Francaise" Eventually, I translated this into English. It makes chilling reading.

When Marcel first visited us, it was toward the end of October. He and his friend Louis Bornet, who had also been deported by the Nazis, were invited by veterans of the King's Own Border Regiment, to a march by the veterans, in Whitehaven, the following Sunday. There was quite a good turnout for the march and when I went to pick them up afterwards, they had just had lunch at a location where it had been laid on for them.
Now they spoke no English and the veterans, between them had very little French. However, the veterans, when they heard that they were to receive such distinguished visitors, learned La Marseiilase, which they sang. Marcel and Louis were overwhelmed. On the journey back, they continually made references like: "Les anciens combattants, Anglais, sont formidables!"
Marcel was a very keen fisherman but had never fished for salmon. We decided to alter that and got him a day on Lady Egremont's private water, on the nearby River Derwent. He caught two and was absolutely delighted.

When he was in Cockermouth, I was amazed to see him send postcards to people in Germany. He replied that these were ex German prisoners, mainly from Buchenwald, with whom he had re-established contact. All these camps seem to have associations for ex inmates, hardly surprising when you think what they went through.
He said he didn't hate the German people, only the Nazis. In Marvejols, he became a teacher of German and Mathematics after the war and president of the Red Cross for the Departement of Lozere.

Submitted to this site by Colin Brownlee