The 20th century (of 1939 to 1950)
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During the " funny one of war " from September 1939 to April 1940, Marseilles life at the rate/rhythm of the official statements laconic of the press or diffused by there T.S.F. (Transmission Without Wire) : “Nothing to announce on the whole of the face”. |
The iron-foundries turn at intervals of intensive production to the service of National Defense.
November 18: French Order in Council authorizing the internment of the " dangerous individuals for national defense or the public security ".
| In fear of the air raids, as of the come night, the streets are plunged in the darkness. All the cellars available are opened with the public, announced by a panel " Shelter ". |  |
June 23, 1940, the reprocessed vice-admiral Muselier leaves Marseilles and share for London.
May 10, 1940 , one learns the invasion from Holland and Belgium.
It is soon the German rush on the North of France. June 2, alerts on Marseilles. The port is severly bombarded.
June 10, Italy declares the war in France and begins the first engagements on the face of the Alps.(In spite of manpower much higher in a number than French manpower, the Italian offensive is a general failure. The armies of Duce are stopped everywhere in Maurienne, Briançonnais, Ubaye, in Queyras and themaritime ones.)
June 15, 1940, Paul Reynaud, president of the Council, resigns, replaced by marshal Pétain.
 Wehrmacht in Paris |
The 16, the German troops, which re-entered to Paris the 14, cross the Loire. And the 22, the armistice are signed. Marseilles is plunged in a heavy environment, testing, which will not cease darkening during the four years to come. |
There are the young people, who as of July, are built-in in “Building sites of Youth”.
There is there “line of demarcation”, cutting the country in two zones, " occupied " and " free ".
There is already, as of this summer 1940, the first difficulties of supply, the first " restrictions ", which will be only being accentuated during month and of the following years.
There is also, of course, the hope which gives birth to at much there “National Revolution”, who has just replaced IIIème République, with his master words " Work - Family - Fatherland ", evoking the return to a " certain command ".
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| See the words | Small changes of 1943 |
September 27 : First antijuive German ordinance published in occupied France.
October 3 : First statute of the Jews promulgated by Vichy.
October 4: Law of Vichy authorizing the internment from " abroad of Jewish race ". The German authorities require of the French administration in zone occupied to intern the Gypsies.
October 9: " the Jews of Algeria will not be any more French citizens ". - October 19 and 20: Measurements concerning " the French Jews reside in France "... And the same day, these some heavy lines of consequences: " the foreign nationals Juifs will be able, by prefectoral decision, being interned in special camps ". Terrible gears. Tragic horizon...
At the beginning of November, measurements of rationing in force develop and harden.
November 23, alerts on Marseilles. British bombers release explosive bombs and flamers. The district Ste-Anne is reached. One will count 4 dead and 5 wounded.
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December 3 and 4: Official visit in Marseilles of the Pétain Marshal. With its exit from the train, in Arles, Pétain is accomodated by gardians and of Arlésiennes. To Marseilles, accompanied by the admiral Darlan, the head of the State reviews the troops, assists with a military procession quay of the Belgians, then is received by the bishop. in Toulon, the sailors of Strasbourg present the weapons to them. |
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1941 presents themselves, in Marseilles, as one year relatively calm, in the climate of war which continues and intensifies.(June 22, 1941 : The Barberousse plan ) |
Even in its difficult moments our compatriots knew to smile. At that time circulated a riddle :
Which is the smallest meadow of the world ?
- The uniform of Bochs because there is always a cow inside !
February, the troops of the Axis attack the English on the face of Lybie.
June 2: Second statute of the Jews taken by the Vichy government.
June 22, Hitler starts the invasion of the U.R.S.S. December 7, it will be Pearl Harbour and the input in war of the U.S.A.
July 22, one displays on the walls of the city a " Opinion relating to the Juifs nationals ": " Any Jewish person must make the statement of it on a custom form with the Town hall, service of the administrative font, before July 31, time of rigour ".
1942 : Dramatic beginning of year for the Marseilles world of navigation. January 8, the LAMORICIERE of the Transatlantic General Company, made shipwreck off the Balearic Islands, involving in its loss 312 victims.
In Marseilles the difficulties of all kinds multiply, in particular with regard to the supply and the heating.
Patriotic demonstration in Marseilles with demonstration on Canebière: henchmen of Sabiani shoot at crowd.
| February 23, with 14h45, the works gas of the district of Droppings, explode brutally, making 11 dead and 23 wounded, sowing the agitation in the population. |  |
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Meeting in Paris photographs enters Pierre Laval, head of the government, and the General SS, Carl Oberg, with the head of all the German fonts in France since April 1942. |
| It will improve the collaboration of the Vichyist and German fonts with René Bousquet, secretary-general with the font. |
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-May 22, 1942, Pierre Barraud, delegated prefect, inaugurates the first line of trolley bus in Marseilles. This line the " 74 " will leave the street " Montebello Small valley " to go to the Plain " Place Jean Jaurès ". " Good-bye with the buses eater of gasoline, good-bye to the noisy and cumbersome trams, awkward for circulation and hello with the trolley buses which do not have any of these defects " (Current events of May 22, 1942) (sic). What can one think today?
| May 29: Schedule German imposing the port of yellow star to the Jews in France (northern zone). In the current of this summer 42, July the 16 and 17, fall down on Paris the massive raids of Jews followed by their concentration to the " cycle-racing track of winter " 12.884 stopped Jews and their sending |
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But the event which marks more this year 1942 is, obviously, occupation , by the German troops, zone hitherto known as " free ". November 11, they cross the " line of demarcation "; the 12 at midday, they are in Marseilles where the curfew is founded. Consequently, the situation is degraded.
The supply, already quite thin, is reduced more still, occupying it being useful itself in priority; the black market, already active, develops; and the scuttling of the fleet in Toulon, November 27, will make the troops more hostile and more demanding.
1943: The test continues.
January 22 and 23, raid in all the city.
Sunday January 24, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the Northern district of the Vîeux-Port (between the quay Maréchal Pétain, the esplanade of Tourette, the place of Lenche, the street Caisserie, the street of the Rocket and the place Victor Gelu) is encircled by the font and the German army, all them inhabitants are evacuated by trams and trucks to the station of Arenc and, from there, piled up in 30 goods trains to the leaded coaches, taken along to the " camp of Frejus ", 1 642 of them, delivered to Gestapo, will be then directed on Compiegne, then Germany.
Dice the beginning of February, the district will be systematically dynamited by the German army and, on their return of Frejus, the former occupants, stripped of all, will have only to find asylum in parents, friends, or in buildings put at their disposal, that and there, in suburbs or various points of the department.
February 16, creation of “Service of Obligatory Work” the too famous S.T.O. Listed with the Departmental Service of the 119, Labour National boulevard, the young people are then called by special convocation and embarked by whole train, via the " street Honnorat ", departure of the workers in Germany bases, installed in the requisitioned buildings of " the night shelter of the women ". December 1942 to July 1944, number 15 of the Street Honnorat, 18.000 men, all ages, all conditions, left towards Germany, under deportees of work. Two thousand did not return.
In February is founded, for all the men from 16 to 60 years, “the 6 days Service” : six working days to the service, more especially, of the Todt company: in this moment, the famous one is built “wall of the Mediterranean ” and, of Bonneveine to the Roucas-White, draws up an enormous concrete rampart furnished with blockhouse...
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However Resistance develops, in all its forms, in Marseilles like elsewhere, especially since measurements concerning the Jews and the occupation of the Southern zone. But repression is also accentuated, it, appalling, with the seat of |  |
| (to increase) | Gestapo, in a villa today | (to increase) |
| December 2, a Anglo-American bombardment on the basis of underwater Cape Janet came to sow terror in |  |
| To increase |
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1944 : The Occupation proves more and more crushing, the supply is tighter than ever, and the repression, orchestrated at the same time by Gestapo and the Militia, shows itself each day plus relentless vis-a-vis with an increasingly vigorous and given Resistance. |
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March 16, more than 6.000 workmen of the metallurgy put themselves in strike. Official reason: Wage increase and improvement of the supply, major reason, to paralyse to the maximum the activities of the enemy. |
April 21, a decree stipulates that " movement of the pedestrians on the roads skirting the Marseilles coast, (in particular: Cornice, range, ect.) only side opposed to the sea is allowed (along which one works with famous " the wall of the Mediterranean") and that any stop is severly prohibited and involves a danger of death ".
May 16, " the motor vehicle traffic is from now on prohibited in the Rhone delta of 21h with 5h, without any exemption, even for the doctors and the midwives ".
May 25, the metal-workers put themselves again in strike and fact stains of oil. It extends to Aubagne, in Martigues, and in the mines of the basin of Fuveau and Gardanne.
 To increase |
Saturdays May 27, (veille of Pentecost) with 9h56, the howl of the sirens announces an alarm on Marseilles. With lOhÖ, to 4 000 - 5 000 meters of altitude, seven waves of American bombers (120 flying fortresses) pour on the city, in less than ten minutes, more than 800 bombs from 250 to 500 kilos. |
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The spectacle is appalling. All the city is reached. And if the most touched districts are those of station Saint-Charles(the railwaymen of Marseilles were particularly reached: 150 dead), of the National boulevard, Saint-Lazare, Beautiful-of-May when the church is demolished, the bombs also explodes in Montolivet, Saint-Barnabé, Saint-Jérome. But also, street Paradise (the Périer College is reached), street Jean |
| Mermoz, Rodocanacchi boulevard, with the angle of the Périer boulevard and Prado, on Prado (Saint-Joseph of Cluny), boulevard of Leuwen (barracks of the sailor-firemen). One will count 1 976 dead, 2 761 wounded, and more than 20 000 disaster victims; more than one around fifty of killed and several hundreds of wounded among the soldiers of the German army. |  |
June 4, in a religious service celebrated with the cathedral with the memory of all these victims, Monseigneur Delay will be indignant at such a carnage.
Germano-Vichyist poster presenting the last argument before the unloading combined in Normandy, June 6, 1944 (coll MRN).
June 6, 1944: Unloading in Normandy.
The hope shapes! Having a presentiment of the defeat, the troops of occupations, Gestapo, the Militia, are done increasingly nervous.
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June 10 , the SS wildly massacre 643 people with Oradour-on-Glanes almost all the population of the village. But there is also wildly massacre 643 people with Oradour-on-Glanes almost all the population of the village. But there is too Marsoulas, village martyr of Haute-Garonne where 126 inhabitants are |
July 16: Radio-London denounces the responsibility for Vichy in the deportations.
In Marseilles, the arrests multiply, just as the operations against the maquis of the surroundings. One tortures more than ever to the 425 street Paradis...
July 18, 29 resistant Marseillais are taken along by truck in a clearing of the surroundings of Signes, where they will be cut down without judgement and jetés in a pit dug with their intention.
Lastly, August 15, it is it unloading combined on the coast of Provence. And, consequently, all is held very quickly.
Le August 21 the occupant makes jump the harbour installations of Marseilles. More than 200 ships of all kinds are cast in the master keys and the basins. The transporter bridge is destroyed to block the input of the Old man-Port.
The 22, in the evening, the French troops, controlled by General of Montsabert, are in Saint-Pierre-les-Aubagne.
The 23 in the morning, they lead in Saint-Barnabé, the boulevard of the Madeleine, to Canebière.
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The battle for the release of Marseilles starts, which will finish only the 28, with the capitulation of the Schaeffer General. During these days, |
X, the tunnel of the careenage.
The 25, it is there Conquest of Our-Lady of the Guard.
The 27, strong the Saint Nicolas's Day capitulates in its turn.
August 29, while the bells of the city sound with any flight, the troops ravel on the quay of the Belgians. Marseilles is released! (see on there release of Marseilles)
But, it, for, is not returned as much to the normal life. During long weeks, an insurrectionary climate will make the things difficult. Situation exacerbated by the sufferings accumulated during these five painful years, poisoned by there collaboration of some, by the denunciations, the arrests, the deportations... And, during several months, Purification will prevail, like elsewhere in the country, painful it also, with often its more or less expeditious justice leaving sometimes free course with personal revenges and the payments of account.
1945: May 8, Germany capitulates without condition. (After the capitulation of the III° Reich, the Allies decide to organize the lawsuit of Nuremberg to judge the persons in charge Nazis.)
Soon will re-enter the prisoners, absent since five long years, them deportees, young envoys of force to the Service of Obligatory Work...
But soon, alas, one will also discover with fear the horror of the concentration camps, the extent of the will Nazi of extermination, terrible the génocide of the Juif people...
| One often speaks about concentration camps out of the borders of France, it should not be forgotten that on our premises also the Nazie madness has to exist. Very close to Marseilles the camp of the Miles. |  |
July-15 23 August : Lawsuit Pétain.
The war is not finished yet. In a few months, atomic death will fall down on Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
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August 6, 1945, B-29 Enola Gay, controlled by colonel Tibbets Takes off of Tinian. Hiroshima, target priority, is released. In the morning, the single bomber launches the single bomb. It explodes 40 seconds after its dropping. The bomb, equivalent to 20.000 tons of TNT (20 kilotons), causes the death of 71.000 people, the months and the years which follow, of very many inhabitants die |
Three days after, the Americans launch a new nuclear bomb to Japan, on Nagasaki. Launched by B-29, the Conceited bomb Man, is with plutonium. It makes 80.000 immediate victims. Japan capitulates on September 2, 1945 out of bay of Tokyo, aboard Missouri battleship.
October 4-9: Laval Lawsuit.
November 20: The international military Tribunal installs its bases in Nuremberg. The verdict will be returned on October 1, 1946.
Civil human losses and soldiers of the Second World war
Grand total: between 40 and 52 million deaths
including approximately 7 million deportees in Germany.
FRENCH LOSSES
Uncertainties remain even when they are official data. Here a table resulting from the OJ Parliamentary debates national assembly of 30 November 1954, requested by ex-serviceman and victims of war.
Died of the war 1939-1945
| SOLDIERS | 205.707 |
| SOLDIERS 1939-1945 | 121.446 |
| ARMED RELEASE | 77.615 |
| DISAPPEARED | 2 782 |
| CIVIL | 330.260 |
| S.T.O. | 40.000 |
| POLITICAL DEPORTES | 65.000 |
| RACIAL DEPORTES | 117.000 |
| MILITARY ACTIONS | 108.260 |
| TOTAL | 538.749 |
| Marseilles prepares, with joy and emotion, to accomodate its prisoners and its deportees. For the whole of the department of the Rhone delta, one estimates their number at some 49 000: 18 000 prisoners of war, 6 000 deportees political, 25 000 enrôlés young people of force in the S.T.O.. |  |
During months which will follow, as well in the buildings of theSaint-Charles station as in what remains usable harbour installations for those which are repatriated by sea, an active greeting opens, to those which return, deepest of the heart of the city.
Marseilles, with its thin resources available to the bloodless country, slowly endeavours to bandage its wounds, to clear and raise its ruins.
On this photograph one sees the tank " Jeanne d' Arc " which is already in its place.
Opposite, quay of the old port, one distinguishes the districts destroyed by the German army.
| 1946: Beginning of the war of Indo-China (1946 - 1954) In 1954, descent into Hell and it tragic end of Dien Ben Phu. April 28, 1956, the last French troops leave Vietnam (which will be reunified, after another war, in 1976). The assessment of the losses undergone by the troops of the French Union of 1946 to 1954 rise with: CEF + associated States (not included/understood back-up troops) : killed with the combat and disappeared: 77 334. Wounded: 84 270  |
 Guettor in a trench. |
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Money of 10F (1949 Ø 2,6cm)
1950 : Marseilles is then in full rebuilding, following the multiple attacks, demolitions and devastations, due to the war.
The clearing of the harbour-basins and the repair of the quays continue at accelerated intervals.
The house of Gabre (XVIe century)
This house had been saved at the time of the destruction of the old workings, but like it be in the medium, it was moved, by a company American, on rails and replaced with the angle of the street Bonneterie.
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On the district of Vieux-Port shaved in 1943, the new buildings come to come out of ground, their first occupants will be able to take possession in April 1951 of it. Already, of Chartreux in Timone, one undertook the hard cover of the Jarret. |
The " radiant City "
The city besides, starts to extend, after the long years of stagnation, and the very new sets H.L.M., where will pile up thousands of badly-housed persons, come out of term like the city " Bellevue ", at Beautiful-of-May, one of the first to be born.
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Soon work of enlarging Cornice will start. |
| to increase | The Cornice, tram 82B. |
1952 : The file Dominici
1954: November 1, beginning of the war of Algeria
(March 18, 1962, agreements of Evian, Algerian independence.)
One starts to cut the plane trees of the street of Rome...
The northern motorway is already quite advanced...
In this year 1954, television gradually will invade its waves the sky of Marseilles, Chanot Park at the top of Star, upsetting the manners of living " of formerly " and inaugurating the era of the " medias ". Marseilles enters, in what one could call " the modern time " of the city phocéenne.
Before finishing this incursion into time, I would not like to finish without you speaking about our humour, which sometimes is galvaudé where I would say rather, badly included/understood a little by certain person. Mr Marcel Pagnol has depicts us very well, our humour consists in saying in a light and fine way serious things. It is thus for example, in " Fanny ", the dialogue between César and Escartefigue :
César : " Me, for example I do not wonder if it is true that your wife misleads you with the president of weighing-sworn, is not this?. Do I ask it to you?"
Escartefigue : " You does not ask it to me, but you teach it to me! O rascal of fate!."
Our humour was plait with contrast between the familiar words and the tragic situations.
One day the priest of Roquevaire be very in anger against his parishioners and during his homélie it tells them:"si that continues you will go all in hell ". A voice rises in assembled: " Jeou, me in fouti, siéou of Oouruou!" (Me I of insane, I am of Auriol!).
Or, at the épicière: " How you want it the cheese: a little guindé or which is given up?".
And finally, it is said that Saturday ago without sun; and well it is that that day, the Virgin makes dry the langes of the Child-Jesus. Nice not!
Such is Marseilles, such are the Marseillais gathered under the glance of their " Good Mother ", Marseilles moving permanent, always a little disconcerting, more modest than one believes it behind the jokes.
...Not to like Marseilles, the life should not be liked...
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"Es pas beou ce qu'es beou, es beou ce qu'é m'agrado"
(is not beautiful what is beautiful, but what plait me)
