The Freedom Trail
After the German offensive of May 1940 and the division of France into an occupied zone in the north and a free zone in the south, many civilians and soldiers, fleeing a world of persecution, imprisonment and execution, inseparable from Nazi barbarism, sought refuge as soon as possible in this free zone, synonymous with hope.
Among the soldiers, there were escaped prisoners, newly enlisted volunteers, young troops, downed pilots, all driven by the same desire to join the allied forces in order to continue the fight, as well as many civilians, victims of all kinds of discrimination, persecuted foreigners and refractory people in danger, harassed Jews, unmasked or denounced resistance fighters.
The common denominator was the vital need to leave France and reach Spain by crossing the Pyrenees: Either out of a simple instinct for survival, or to inevitably resist the unbearable oppression; from the beginning of this voluntary exodus, all those who were captured by the Spanish border guards were unfortunately turned back into France, interned by the Vichy power and sent back to the German authorities; Later, they were kept in detention in Spain and although General Franco was Hitler's ally, treating all new arrivals with malice, who were immediately incarcerated in notorious prisons for a period of 2 to 6 months (depending on their age, nationality or their own status), he sent them back under the more or less secret economic agreements he had made with the Allied forces.
From the beginning of the occupation, the Pyrenees, an integral part of the free zone, were less guarded, thus allowing the passage of unprepared people by easier routes who could, by themselves or through relatives, find volunteers with expertise in high mountains to take them to Spain: among these companions, there were of course shepherds, smugglers, forest rangers, chamois hunters, peasants from border villages...
But from 11 November 1942, the date of the Germans' entry into the unoccupied zone, following the Allied landing in North Africa on the 8th of the same month, the Nazi encirclement was closed, surveillance was intensified, in particular, border guards, mostly Austrians, were sent in large numbers along the chain, patrols multiplied in the high mountains; even there, a 20-kilometre forbidden zone was created within which one could not travel without a pass.
In order to replace the improvisation of the first steps, it was essential to find more structured, methodical and, above all, more secret organisations; thus, real networks appeared, British, Belgian, Dutch, Polish, but also of French soldiers, whose main and common objective consisted of passing not only men, but also information and documents.
The worst is from February 1943, as a consequence of the creation of the STO (compulsory labour service), which obliges young people to go and work in the different territories of the Reich, then a stream of "refractory" is declared, who, to escape this strict order, decide to join the maquis or go to Spain. Faced with this massive exodus of cheap labour (which also had to deal with a growing and increasingly worrying number of military escapes), Nazi repression increased considerably, arrests became widespread, the guides were even more persecuted and harassed, to such an extent that out of the 2,000 repatriated, about half were executed or died in deportation; however, thanks to them, especially in the Pyrenees, 33,000 would-be escapees were able to realise their dream.
Situated almost in the centre of the Pyrenees chain, this department borders Spain, but also Andorra, and has been a place of privileged exchanges with these two countries since Antiquity thanks to numerous ports, called "ports" here, whose altitude varies between 2,000 and 2,500 metres. Bordering the Haute-Garonne to the west, there is the Couserans which extends to the east through the country of Foix, then through that of Ax les Thermes, neighbouring the Eastern Pyrenees and Andorra.
The Couserans and the road to freedom
Adjacent to Spain, and more precisely to the Aran Valley, this land was ideally situated to favour escapes. Various networks mentioned in the preamble were developed for this reason. Indeed, it extends over some forty kilometres around Saint-Girons, its administrative capital, and the junction of various valleys, most of which face the border through the Haut Couserans, a mountainous region that is particularly wooded and difficult to access; it is situated broadly between Portet d'Aspet, close to the peak of Crabère (2,629 m), and the confines of Massat, dominated by the peak of the Trois Seigneurs (2,199 m).
During the occupation, a railway line, which has now disappeared, linked Toulouse to Saint-Girons (the Route de la Liberté house was symbolically built on the exact site of the old station, at the end of the line and closely watched by the Milice and the Gestapo). Candidates for escape were, from then on, on the spot... It was not until November 1942, for the reasons already mentioned, that most of their attempts were successful, because they were led by routes that did not present great difficulties, such as the ports of Salau or Aula, from the villages of Couflens and Seix; but when the occupying forces entered the free zone, it was necessary to use networks, to benefit from intermediaries and reliable guides, experts in these missions, and to act with more discretion to have the chance of succeeding.
The difficulty and length of the routes increased as the months passed, in proportion to their vigilance: the routes were then and in all seasons ports such as that of Guillou by Aulus (a Jewish child passed there in the arms of Jeanne Rogalle, honoured with the title of Righteous 60 years later), as well as that of Marterat, by Ustou, of Orle or Urets by Sentein, of Bentaillou by the Biros valley and finally and above all that of Claouère by Mont-Valier, the reference route, whose descriptive document will help the reader to better appreciate the material, physical, psychological and meteorological difficulties (often terrible in spring and winter) characteristic of all these routes, which were endured in varying degrees by all the candidates for escape. Needless to say, a large number of them died there: no doubt these dangerous passages have generated many known or unknown dramas.
The guides of the Couserans also paid a heavy price in executions and deportations. However, their perfect knowledge of the terrain and the habits of their pursuers enabled them to frequently escape the traps that were set for them. In total, some thirty of them brought about a happy ending for almost 3,000 people: 2,506 men and 158 women registered in the Sort prison in Spain, plus those who fortunately avoided Spanish imprisonment, the temporary epilogue to all the stages of the journey of some twenty different escape routes. Among these, one of the most emblematic and representative is the aforementioned Freedom Route, which runs through the Pyrenees from Saint-Girons to Sort via Mont Valier.
The Freedom Road House
This historical source, rich in testimonies, moral and material marks, deserved to be highlighted and exploited in order to remain an important link in this period of our history. This is the mission that the Freedom Trail Association has set itself through these two projects:
-The creation of the Freedom Road House.
- The organisation of a remembrance walk along the route.
Financed to 50% by European funds in 2007, it is located at the northern entrance to the town of Saint-Girons, on the site of the old station.
It consists of two parts:
On the ground floor, there is a permanent exhibition which has been created with historical objectivity and intellectual honesty in mind, the main theme of which is the guides and escapees from France. It is presented in the form of various posters, including: places of internment in Spain, networks, itineraries, shelters and passages, the house arrest of Jews, Allied pilots shot down on our territory, young troops, places of remembrance, martyrs, heroes... Sporadically, temporary exhibitions deal with subjects, also related to the period concerned...
A floor which houses the archives and the library; it is open to the public every day from Monday to Friday from 2pm to 4.30pm.
ITALY - SPAIN - FRANCE