Célestino Alfonso (1 May 1916, at
Ituero de Azaba,
Salamanca province
Salamanca () is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León (Castilla y León). It is bordered by the provinces of Zamora, Valladolid, Ávila, and Cáceres, and on the west by Portugal. It h ...
, Spain – 21 February 1944, at
Fort Mont-Valérien
Fort Mont-Valérien ( French: ''Forteresse du Mont-Valérien'') is a fortress in Suresnes, a western Paris suburb, built in 1841 as part of the city's ring of modern fortifications. It overlooks the Bois de Boulogne.
History
Before Thiers built ...
, France) was a
Spanish republican
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...
, a volunteer in the French liberation army
FTP-MOI
The Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d'œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI) were a sub-group of the ''Francs-tireurs et partisans'' (FTP) organization, a component of the French Resistance. A wing composed mostly of foreigners, the MOI maintained an arm ...
, and a part of the resistance operation led by
Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian (Western hy, Միսաք Մանուշեան; , 1 September 1906 – 21 February 1944) was a French-Armenian poet and communist activist. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1925. H ...
. He was, by profession, a carpenter.
Youth
Alfonso arrived in France at the beginning of the 1930s. In 1934, he joined the ''
Jeunesse communiste'' (Communist Youth) and became responsible for the
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the co ...
group. In 1936, he set out as a volunteer for republican Spain, arriving on 27 August 1936. He served as a machine-gunner with the rank of sergeant, and from 1937, the rank of lieutenant. In 1938, his right hand was wounded. He was, shortly afterward, named political commissar of the 2nd
International Brigade
The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...
with the rank of captain. In February 1939, he was repatriated to the camp at
Saint-Cyprien, from which he escaped.
Second World War
In May 1942, Alfonso joined the
French resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
. Arrested, he was deported to Germany, where, after six months in a camp, he succeeded in escaping and returned to Paris where he became head of a
FTP-MOI
The Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d'œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI) were a sub-group of the ''Francs-tireurs et partisans'' (FTP) organization, a component of the French Resistance. A wing composed mostly of foreigners, the MOI maintained an arm ...
resistance group. He participated in many operations in Paris and in the Orléans region, notably the execution of General Ernst Von Schaumburg, commandant of Greater Paris, and on 29 September 1943 of
SS officer , responsible for the
STO
STO may refer to:
Businesses and organizations Government
* Science & Technology Organization, a NATO organization
* ''Service du travail obligatoire'', French men & women between certain ages deported to Germany during WWII to work as slave la ...
in France.
Assassination of Ritter
The FTP-MOI intelligence service had noticed the strengthening of security measures on
rue Saint-Dominique in Paris. A large
Mercedes with
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
s on the sides regularly entered the courtyard of the ''Maison de la Chimie'', and a Nazi official was let out. After four months of planning, the military leadership of the FTP requested
Marcel Rayman
Marcel Rajman (alias Simon Maujean, Faculté, Michel, and Michel Mieczlav; 1 May 1923 − 21 February 1944) was a Polish Jew and volunteer fighter in the FTP-MOI group of French resistance fighters during World War II, and the head of "Stalingr ...
, and Alfonso to plan an attack against this official. The operation was put under the authority of Missak Manouchian, the military overseer of the FTP-MOI, from late August 1943.
On the morning of 28 September 1943, the Mercedes was parked for a few minutes before picking up its passenger. Alfonso fired at the SS officer as he got into the car. The windshield blocked the bullets, but the man was injured, probably by flying glass. He attempted to get out of the car through the opposite door, but Rayman hit him, fatally, with three bullets. The fighters only learned the man's identity through the German press: it was General , the assistant in France to
Fritz Sauckel
Ernst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician, ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Thuringia from 1927 and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (''Arbeitseinsatz'') from March 1942 unti ...
, who was responsible for the mobilization and deportation of labor under the German STO (Obligatory Work Service) in Nazi-occupied Europe. Ritter was the chief recruiter of slave labor in occupied France.
The front-page denunciation of this "abominable act" and the official funeral at the ''
église de la Madeleine'' gave the operation even more impact.
Arrest and execution
Alfonso was arrested in October 1943, and he was shot at the fort
Mont-Valérien on 21 February 1944, along with 21 other members of the FTP-MOI. He had a wife and a small child.
Affiche rouge
Alfonso's name was featured on the
Affiche rouge
The ''Affiche Rouge'' (Red Poster) is a notorious propaganda poster, distributed by Vichy France and German authorities in the spring of 1944 in occupied Paris, to discredit 23 immigrant French Resistance fighters, members of the Manouchian Gro ...
poster, as: ''Alfonso, Espagnol rouge, 7 attentats'' (Alfonso, Spanish Communist, 7 attacks)
[Graham, Helen. ''The spanish civil war. A very short introduction.'' Oxford University Press. 2005. p.124]
See also
*
Main-d'œuvre immigrée
The Main-d'œuvre immigrée was a French trade unionist organisation, composed of immigrant workers of the '' Confédération générale du travail unitaire'' (CGTU) in the 1920s. The MOI was affiliated to the Profintern. The MOI was initially na ...
*
Francs-tireurs et partisans - Main-d'œuvre immigrée
*
Affiche rouge
The ''Affiche Rouge'' (Red Poster) is a notorious propaganda poster, distributed by Vichy France and German authorities in the spring of 1944 in occupied Paris, to discredit 23 immigrant French Resistance fighters, members of the Manouchian Gro ...
External links
*
L'Affiche rouge - Manouchian*
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso, Celestino
1916 births
1944 deaths
Communist members of the French Resistance
Executed Spanish people
FTP-MOI
Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany
International Brigades personnel
People executed by Nazi Germany by firearm
People from the Province of Salamanca
Spanish people executed by Nazi Germany
Affiche Rouge
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France
Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Executed assassins
Executed communists