Jean Burger, alias "Mario", was a member of 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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A member of the

French communist party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

, he was born in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) 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 E ...

on 16 February 1907 and died at the

Mittelbau-Dora Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour ...

concentration camp on 3 April 1945.

Biography

Youth and political engagement

Born into a family of tradesmen, Jean Burger studied at the Ecole Normale de Montigny and became a teacher in the industrial basin of

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...

.Pierre Schill, tribune libre, ''l'Humanité'', 15 février 2007 He rose rapidly in the Communist Party and became departmental secretary for the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

anti-fascist movement ''Paix et Liberté'' ("Peace and Liberty"). Burger became involved in recruitment for the

International Brigades 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 ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. In September 1939, Burger was mobilized as part of the 460th Pioneer Regiment of the French Army and was stationed on the

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...

where he was taken prisoner on 17 June 1940. Burger and his brother escaped during

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...

in 1941. Jean Burger took the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

René Legrand at this time.

Resistance

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.Bernard Le Marrec, Gérard Le Marrec, ''Les années noires, la Moselle annexée par Hitler'', Éditions Serpenoises, 1990, , p.252-253, language=French 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. 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 Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. Activities included aid to German deserters and assistance for Soviet prisoners of war in camps in the Moselle region.

Arrest

Massive arrests of resisters began in August 1943. The arrests were aided by information seized by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

in 1940 from the

Direction centrale des renseignements généraux The ''Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux'' (Central Directorate of General Intelligence), often called ''Renseignements Généraux'' (RG), was the intelligence service of the French National Police, answerable to the ''Direction Gén ...

, the intelligence service of the

French National Police The National Police (french: Police nationale), formerly known as the , is one of two national police forces of France, the other being the National Gendarmerie. The National Police is the country's main civil law enforcement agency, with primar ...

. 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. 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 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 b ...

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 Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

and

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, then to

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

. as American forces were closing in on Metz. Not long after arriving at Dachau, he was moved to the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. With the approach of Soviet forces, Burger and a few other Marios were marched to

Gleiwitz Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the re ...

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. Finally moved to an annex of the Dora concentration camp, he was mortally wounded while weakened by

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

during an American bombing raid on the

Mittelwerk Mittelwerk (; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flyin ...

complex.

Legacy

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 Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, Germany, where a commemorative monument was erected.

Bibliography

* Bernard Le Marrec, Gérard Le Marrec, ''Les années noires, la Moselle annexée par Hitler'', Éditions Serpenoises, 1990, * Léon Burger, ''Le groupe Mario, une page de la Résistance lorraine, Hellenbrand, 1965 (Léon was Jean's brother) * Eugène Heiser, ''La Tragédie lorraine'', Tome I, Pierron, 1984 * Marcel Neigert, ''Internements et déportations en Lorraine''Université de Metz, 1978

References

External links

''L’itinéraire de Jean Burger, alias « Mario »''
by Pierre Schill, professor of history and geography at the University of Montpellier, ''l'Humanité'', 15 February 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Burger, Jean Communist members of the French Resistance French communists 1907 births 1945 deaths People who died in Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp French people who died in Nazi concentration camps Deaths by airstrike during World War II French civilians killed in World War II Resistance members who died in Nazi concentration camps