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Jean Burger, alias "Mario", was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. A member of the French communist party, he was born in Metz on 16 February 1907 and died at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp on 3 April 1945.
Born into a family of tradesmen, Jean Burger studied at the Ecole Normale de Montigny [1] and became a teacher in the industrial basin of Lorraine. [2] He rose rapidly in the Communist Party and became departmental secretary for the Moselle anti-fascist movement Paix et Liberté ("Peace and Liberty"). [3] Burger became involved in recruitment for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. [2] In September 1939, Burger was mobilized as part of the 460th Pioneer Regiment of the French Army and was stationed on the Maginot Line where he was taken prisoner on 17 June 1940. Burger and his brother escaped during Pentecost in 1941. [2] Jean Burger took the pseudonym René Legrand at this time. [1]
Charles Hoeffel, a Communist Party militant and member of the CGT railway workers' union, put Burger into contact with Georges Wodli, a member of the Communist Party Central Committee. Wodli asked Burger to organize Communist resistance in the Moselle region. [4] Burger organized the "Mario" resistance group, whose activities included the printing and distribution of leaflets, collection of arms, aid to prisoners and resisters, and sabotage. [4] Three thousand men and women participated in the Mario group. The organization was integrated into the national resistance movement and had contacts in Paris and Luxembourg. Activities included aid to German deserters and assistance for Soviet prisoners of war in camps in the Moselle region. [1]
Massive arrests of resisters began in August 1943. The arrests were aided by information seized by the Gestapo in 1940 from the Direction centrale des renseignements généraux, the intelligence service of the French National Police. Jean Burger was arrested in Metz on 21 September 1943 by the Germans, who had set a trap for resisters. As a result, by the time American troops arrived in the area in 1944, the Mario group had practically ceased to exist. [2] [4]
After his arrest, Burger was tortured by the Gestapo, then moved to a military prison in Metz. From there he went to the Fort de Queuleu just outside Metz, which was used as a detention and interrogation center for members of the Resistance. In November 1944 he was sent to prisons in Mannheim and Wiesbaden, then to Dachau concentration camp. [2] as American forces were closing in on Metz. Not long after arriving at Dachau, he was moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp. With the approach of Soviet forces, Burger and a few other Marios were marched to Gleiwitz in Silesia. Finally moved to an annex of the Dora concentration camp, he was mortally wounded while weakened by pneumonia during an American bombing raid on the Mittelwerk complex. [2]
In memory of Burger, a number of streets and buildings in the Mosellle département bear his name, as well as the Jean-Burger-Straße in Magdeburg, Germany, where a commemorative monument was erected.
Metz is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion.
Moselle is the most populous department in Lorraine, in the northeast of France, and is named after the river Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine, which flows through the western part of the department. It had a population of 1,046,543 in 2019. Inhabitants of the department are known as Mosellans.
Robert Antelme was a French writer. During the Second World War he was involved in the French Resistance and deported.
Marthe Hoffnung Cohn is a French author, nurse, former spy and Holocaust survivor. She wrote about her experiences as a spy during the Holocaust in the book Behind Enemy Lines.
Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier was a member of the French Resistance as well as a photojournalist, Communist and later, French politician.
Enchenberg is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France.
The Fort de Guentrange dominates Thionville in the Moselle department of France. It was built by Germany next to the town of the same name in the late 19th century after the annexation of the Moselle following the Franco-Prussian War. The Fort de Guentrange was part of the Moselstellung, a group of eleven fortresses surrounding Thionville and Metz to guard against the possibility of a French attack aimed at regaining Alsace and Lorraine, with construction taking place between 1899 and 1906. The fortification system incorporated new principles of defensive construction to deal with advances in artillery. Later forts, such as Guentrange, embodied innovative design concepts such as dispersal and concealment. The later forts were designed to support offensive operations, as an anchor for a pivoting move by German forces into France.
The Fort de Koenigsmacker is a fortification located to the northeast of Thionville in the Moselle department of France. It was built by Germany next to the town of the same name in the early 20th century after the annexation of the Moselle following the Franco-Prussian War. The Fort de Koenigsmacker was part of the Moselstellung, a group of eleven fortresses surrounding Thionville and Metz to guard against the possibility of a French attack aimed at regaining Alsace and Lorraine, with construction taking place between 1908 and 1914. The fortification system incorporated new principles of defensive construction to deal with advances in artillery. Later forts, such as Koenigsmacker, embodied innovative design concepts such as dispersal and concealment. These later forts were designed to support offensive operations, as an anchor for a pivoting move by German forces into France.
The Fort d'Illange is a fortification located to the south of Thionville in the Moselle department of France. It was built by Germany next to the town of Illange in the early 20th century after the annexation of the Moselle following the Franco-Prussian War. The Fort d'Illange was part of the Moselstellung, a group of eleven fortresses surrounding Thionville and Metz to guard against the possibility of a French attack aimed at regaining Alsace and Lorraine, with construction taking place between 1905 and 1911. The fortification system incorporated new principles of defensive construction to deal with advances in artillery. Later forts, such as Illange, embodied innovative design concepts such as dispersal and concealment. These later forts were designed to support offensive operations, as an anchor for a pivoting move by German forces into France.
Fort Jeanne d'Arc, also called Fortified Group Jeanne d'Arc, is a fortification located to the west of Metz in the Moselle department of France. It was built by Germany to the west of the town of Rozérieulles in the early 20th century as part of the third and final group of Metz fortifications. The fortification program was started after the German victory of the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in the annexation of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France to Germany. The Fort Jeanne d'Arc was part of the Moselstellung, a group of eleven fortresses surrounding Thionville and Metz to guard against the possibility of a French attack aimed at regaining Alsace and Lorraine, with construction taking place between 1899 and 1908. The fortification system incorporated new principles of defensive construction to deal with advances in artillery. Later forts, such as Jeanne d'Arc, embodied innovative design concepts such as dispersal and concealment. These later forts were designed to support offensive operations, as an anchor for a pivoting move by German forces into France.
The Fort de Queuleu is a fortification to the southeast of Metz, near Queuleu, France. Construction began while part of Lorraine was under French rule in 1868. After the interruption of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the fort was improved between 1872 and 1875 by the German Empire, which had conquered the area in the war. Renamed Fort Goeben, it formed part of the first ring of the fortifications of Metz. Functionally obsolete by the First World War, it saw no military action, but was used by the Germans as a detention center for members of the French Resistance during World War II.
The Derhan group was an element of the French resistance in the Moselle department of France during World War II. It was founded by Joseph Derhan, a laborer from Hagondange who had in 1942 formed a group called the Parti de Gaulle composed of fifteen workers from the valley of the Orne, who supported Charles de Gaulle.
The Fort de Plappeville, or Feste Alvensleben, is a military fortification located to the northwest of Metz in the commune of Plappeville. As part of the first ring of the fortifications of Metz, it is an early example of a Séré de Rivières system fort. While it did not see action during World War I, it was the scene of heavy fighting between American forces and German defenders at the end of the Battle of Metz, in 1944. After Second World War it became a training center for the French Air Force. Fort 'Alvensleben' has been abandoned since 1995.
Metz, the capital and the prefecture of the Moselle department in France, has a recorded history dating back over 2,000 years. During this time, it was successively a Celtic oppidum, an important Gallo-Roman city, the Merovingian capital of the Austrasia kingdom, the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty, a cradle of Gregorian chant, and one of the oldest republics of the common era in Europe. As an important city in the heart of Europe and the crossroads of different cultures, Metz has variously experienced an integration into the Roman Empire, the period of christianization, the barbarian depredations, religious wars, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, an annexation into the German Empire, and World War II.
Eugène Hénaff was a French cement worker, Communist, trade union leader and member of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45).
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Metz, France.
The Feste Haeseler, renamed Group Fortification Verdun after 1919, is a military installation near Metz. Constituted as forts Sommy and Saint-Blaise, the fortified group is part of the second fortified belt of forts of Metz. It had its baptism of fire in late 1944, when the Battle of Metz occurred.
The Feste Prinz Regent Luitpold, renamed Group Fortification Yser after 1919, is a military installation near Metz. It is part of the second fortified belt of forts of Metz and had its baptism of fire in late 1944, when the Battle of Metz occurred.
The prix Erckmann-Chatrian is a literary award from Lorraine, awarded every year since 1925 in memory of the literary duo Erckmann-Chatrian. It rewards a written prose work by someone form Lorraine or about Lorraine. It is often nicknamed the "Goncourt lorrain". The jury consists of literary figures of the four Lorraine departments.
Louis-Théodore Devilly was a French painter who specialized in military and Orientalist scenes; associated with the École de Metz.
