Dortan Massacre

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Dortan Massacre
Part of World War II
Monument du martyr a Dortan.JPG
Commemorative plaque to the victims
Location Dortan, France
Coordinates 46°19′06″N05°39′35″E / 46.31833°N 5.65972°E / 46.31833; 5.65972 Coordinates: 46°19′06″N05°39′35″E / 46.31833°N 5.65972°E / 46.31833; 5.65972
Date12–21 July 1944
Deaths35–36 killed [note]
Victims French civilians
PerpetratorsFlag of Germany (1935-1945).svg  Nazi Germany, Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division

The Dortan Massacre was a massacre perpetrated by the Volunteer Cossack-Stamm-Regiment 5 of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division in World War II. As part of Operation Treffenfeld about 35 civilians [note] were killed between 12 and 21 July 1944 in the French village of Dortan by Soviet Volunteers in Wehrmacht service. The massacre was part of a wider German anti-partisan effort against the French Maquis de l'Ain et du Haut-Jura, which along with other French resistance groups staged a massive uprising in mid-1944.

Massacre incident where some group is killed by another

A massacre is a killing, typically of multiple victims, considered morally unacceptable, especially when perpetrated by a group of political actors against defenseless victims. The word is a loan of a French term for "butchery" or "carnage".

The Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division was a German infantry division of the Wehrmacht during World War II. It was created on 1 February 1944 in Southern France. The Division was a so-called Ostlegion, which means its personnel was made up from volunteers from the Soviet Union. Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division was made up with Turkic, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Tartar, Cossack, Armenian and other Soviet volunteers, spread over five regiments. The primary purpose of the division were anti-partisan operations against the French Resistance.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Contents

Background

With the faltering Nazi war effort in WWII, French Resistance activity increased significantly in 1944. Various Maquis units staged uprisings throughout the entirety of France, capturing villages and fighting the German occupiers. Fearing the imminent Allied landing in Southern France, German units ramped up anti-partisan operations to recapture and pacify the French countryside. One of the planned offensives was Operation Treffenfeld, a large scale offensive aimed to destroy the French resistance of the Maquis de l'Ain et du Haut-Jura. This group had been active in the Ain department for years and had its stronghold around the city of Oyonnax. They conducted widespread sabotage-actions against the German infrastructure in the region; German efforts to nullify the threat were mostly unsuccessful. [1] [2]

French Resistance collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime

The French Resistance was the collection of French movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women, who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The men and women of the Resistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics, and also citizens from the ranks of liberals, anarchists and communists.

Maquis (World War II)

The Maquis were rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters, called maquisards, during the Nazi Occupation of France in World War II. Initially, they were composed of men and women who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labor for Germany. To avert capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups.

Operation Dragoon Allied invasion of southern France on 15 August 1944

Operation Dragoon was the code name for the Allied invasion of the French Riviera. Originally planned to coincide with D-Day, it had been postponed due to insufficient landing-craft. In August, it was revived, as the zone had become a low priority for the Germans, and conditions looked favourable for the liberation of Southern France with its key ports of Marseille and Toulon.

The massacre

The German offensive against the French Maquis was mostly successful and they advanced through the Jura Mountains with great speed. The Germans proceeded with utmost brutality; French civilians were frequently accused of being partisan sympathizers and executed on the spot. On 12 July the Volunteer Cossack-Stamm-Regiment 5 of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division, an Ostlegion unit of Soviet volunteers fighting for the Wehrmacht, approached the village of Dortan, just a few kilometers from Oyonnax. After arrival the village was declared a "bandit hive" (Banditenzentrum) and widespread lootings commenced. Seven people, including the local priest, were shot immediately. [3] [4] On the next day the killings continued in what the Germans described as "reprisal actions". The local women were systematically raped and two of them murdered afterwards. During the first two days 24 civilians were killed. [4] The Wehrmacht established a local headquarter in the town to coordinate their operations in the nearby countryside. [3] A couple of days later on 20 July sixteen men from the nearby Château de Dortan were arrested and tortured. The next day, the Germans proceeded to burn the entire village down to the ground. More people were executed, bringing the final death toll to about 35; afterwards the Germans finally left the town to its ruins. [2] [5]

Jura Mountains mountain chain in Switzerland

The Jura Mountains are a sub-alpine mountain range located north of the Western Alps, mainly following the course of the France–Switzerland border. The Jura separates the Rhine and Rhône basins, forming part of the watershed of each.

Ostlegionen

Ostlegionen, Ost-Bataillone, Osttruppen, and Osteinheiten were units in the Army of Nazi Germany, during World War II that were made up of personnel from countries comprising the Soviet Union. They represented a major subset within a broader number of the Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts.

Dortan Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Dortan is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Besides the village of Dortan itself, the commune includes the hamlets of Uffel, Vouais, Bonaz, Emondeau, Sénissiat and Maissiat. The population was 1,845 in 2014.

Aftermath

The village was rebuilt after the war and a street was named after the events of the 21 July. A monument has been erected to honour the victims of the killings. Several plaques and other memorials remind of the atrocity. [6]

Notes

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References

  1. Lieb 2007, pp. 309, 335, 569, 579.
  2. 1 2 Wette & Ueberschär 2001, p. 285.
  3. 1 2 Farmer 1999, pp. 51–52.
  4. 1 2 Lieb 2007, p. 579.
  5. Kedward 1993, p. 280.
  6. "Memorials in Dortan". tracesofwar.com. Retrieved 12 March 2019.

Bibliography

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Harry Roderick "Rod" Kedward is a British historian, formerly professor of history at the University of Sussex and now professor emeritus.