The French Resistance and Its Legacy by Rod Kedward;

Author:Rod Kedward;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350260450
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

M. Lucien MAURY

A large proportion of the Aude is covered with forests, but a maquis needed water as well. Picaussel [to the west of Quillan] was almost a model maquis area, and excellent for parachute drops, being well above the local German headquarters. The population was favorable for three reasons. The leaders were known to them: both I and my adjoint were local schoolteachers. Our contacts with London carried status. And, third, the ancient Cathar mentality was still alive, an old tradition of liberty and resistance just as strong as in the struggles against Simon de Montfort in the early thirteenth century. There was a kind of Languedoc inheritance which was important. Catharism for some conjures up a country of troubadors, courtly love, and an easy life in the sun. But it was a tough and difficult religion resisting the abuses of Catholicism. I have no doubt that Catharism was still the spirit of Resistance. But the struggle against the Germans was different from the struggles of the Cathars against the north of France. Resistance was based on the unity of the French. The origins of the maquis cannot therefore be sought in the regionalism of the Cathars. I come from the Ariège [adjacent to the Aude], but I have never felt any less French than the Parisians.

Both my wife and I spoke Occitan from time to time. It was useful for making good relations with the peasantry. Schoolteachers were very close to the population. . . . I must also point out my temperament as a keen rugby player. We had a combative nature. There were many rugby players in the maquis.

When peasants were on our side we arrived for provisions as if they were hostile. A little bit of theater was staged to make it look as if they had no choice. But where peasants were really against us, then we cut out the playacting, making our raids at night. On the whole these were a rarity, but they were barbaric really, the darkest point of the Resistance. They were grave mistakes. It allowed all abuse to be imputed to the Resistance. Of course, there was abuse. But the vast majority of the crimes of the period were not committed by the maquis. We were not bandits.

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