Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

SURVIVORS AND LIBERATORS | SPEECHES   135 Survivors and Liberators ©Dachau Memorial / G. Hassel On 19 February 1944, the 1,200 resistance fighters held in the French central prison of Eysses formed a battalion and attempted a mass breakout – not only to reclaim their liberty, but also to rejoin their combat units in the final battles for   the liberation of France. This attempt sadly failed. The government headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain – a French collaborator who betrayed his own country – commanded a military tribunal to issue death   sentences to twelve of our finest comrades. They were denied the opportunity to plead their case and were executed on 23 February 1944. Yet even this verdict was not enough for the government.   On 30 May, we were handed over to Das Reich, a notorious   SS Division that transferred us to Stalag 122 in Royallieu.   After being held there for 16 days, we were eventually trans- ported to Dachau. 80 years ago, on 20 June, I was one of 1,200 comrades from the Eysses Battalion who passed through the gate of this camp.   I was walking beside my comrade Ignaz Bauer, an Austrian who had fled the Nazi regime to fight alongside us.When I saw the inscription on the gate, he translated it for me: Arbeit macht frei (Work sets you free) . As we entered the quarantine camp, Block Elder Meanssarian turned to us and said:“You came in through the gate. The exit is over there”. He pointed at the crematorium chimney. Twelve months later, when we were liberated, I weighed only 36 kilograms. I am here today to honour the memory of   my 400 comrades from the Eysses Battalion who died in this concentration camp. Jean Lafaurie Commemorative address  79th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau  5 May 2024 Jean Lafaurie (born in 1923) was imprisoned in 1943 and deported to the Dachau concentration camp in June 1944. The French resistance fighter is now 102 years old and lives in France.