Jean-Marcel Pilet 1925 - 1945
Born 2.10.1925 in St-Ciers-de-Canesse
Died 20.2.1945 in Melk
Biography
BORN ON 2 OCTOBER 1925 IN ST CIERS DE CANESSE (33) - FRANCE
HE IS THE YOUNGEST OF A FAMILY OF THREE BOYS AND TWO GIRLS
ON 2 NOVEMBER 1943, in resistance to the STO (Service du travail obligatoire), Marcel, just 18 years old, leaves his family by informing them that he is leaving, with a friend (Rodolphe – 16 years old), to join the Free French Forces in North Africa and to be part of the resistance.
ON 3 NOVEMBER 1943, they are arrested on the Bordeaux / Hendaye train and taken to Biarritz at the Hôtel de la Paix, requisitioned and transformed into a Gestapo’s annex jail (its headquarters were the Hôtel Edouard VII).
ON 19 NOVEMBER 1943, they are transferred to the Maison Blanche in Biarritz (seasonal hotel also requisitioned).
IN MID-DECEMBER, they are sent to Fort du Hâ (jail) in Bordeaux, part of which was under SS administration.
FROM JANUARY TO THE END OF MARCH 1944, they are requisitioned by the TODT Organization for the Atlantic Wall’s construction in Cap Ferret, (blockhaus). Marcel sends four letters to his family and from one of them (23 February 1944), we assume that he escaped during a change of work place, scheduled for 15 MARCH.
He goes to Basse-Soule, lives and works with farmers in Moncayolle (64). There he meets the man who would later become his friend Saint-Jean ASTARRAGUE. He provides small services to the maquis of St Blaise (Corps Francs Pommiès), LAVALOU company - CARRERE battalion: food, petrol, etc.
ON 27 JUNE 1944, he was rounded up together with his friend Saint-Jean and 20 other resistants and citizens in the commune "L’Hôpital-St-Blaise" (eight of them would not return). They are sent to Villa Chagrin (Bayonne Prison). IN MID-JULY, they were transferred to the Fort du Hâ (again).
ON 9 AUGUST 1944, he was one of the 150/155 prisoners after the landings, who left the Fort du Hâ to be deported with "the ghost train" (left on 3 July 1944 from Toulouse) and which will take three weeks from Bordeaux to get to Dachau.
ON 28 AUGUST 1944, he is registered in Dachau (Germany): 94015, which he leaves on 14 SEPTEMBER 1944.
ON 16 SEPTEMBER 1944, he is deported to Mauthausen (Austria): 98870
ON 21 SEPTEMBER 1944, he is assigned to work in the Kommando of Melk (dependent on Mauthausen), for the QUARZ project: construction of an underground ball bearing factory for the firm Steyr-Daimler-Puch.
The two friends were only separated when Marcel died ON 20 FEBRUARY 1945 of "acute heart failure and pneumonia" which was the reason given by the Waffen-SS*. His friend Jean died ON 18 MARCH 1945.
THEY WERE 19 YEARS OLD…
Family of Jean-Marcel Pilet
* Arolsen website: The catastrophic circumstances prevailing in the concentration camps that were responsible for the deaths – lack of food, illnesses, extremely exhausting forced labor and awful hygienic conditions – were not to be included in the documents. Likewise, medical experiments carried out on detainees, often leading to death, and murders on medical indication had to be concealed.
Location In room
