Edmond Debeaumarché (15 December 1906 – 28 March 1959) was a French postal worker who 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 ...

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 ...

. For his service Debeaumarché was highly decorated. In 1960 Debeaumarché received the posthumous distinction of being depicted on a postage stamp in the series Heroes of the Resistance.

Biography

Debeaumarché was born on 15 December 1906 in

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, and first wanted to become a pilot, but his eyesight was too weak and he joined the French postal service, ''PTT''. He was mobilized in September 1939 as a sergeant in the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

and after June 1940 joined the

. Debeaumarché was in charge of the transportation of mail, a position he used to smuggle mail for the resistance. From the summer of 1943 on, he was on the staff of the ''Action-PTT'', a clandestine organisation within the French postal service, and worked with Ernest Pruvost, its national leader, and directly under Simone Michel-Lévy, establishing postal communications with London. When Michel-Levy was arrested in November 1943, Debeaumarché took over as head of the ''Action-PTT''. Traveling throughout France he created networks of resistance, and organized the sabotage of the enemy's telecommunications (the plans ''Potard'' and ''Violet''—the latter involved cutting telephone cables before D-Day). In addition, he managed to procure the

codebooks A codebook is a type of document used for gathering and storing cryptography codes. Originally codebooks were often literally , but today codebook is a byword for the complete record of a series of codes, regardless of physical format. Cryptog ...

of the three secret codes used by

Joseph Darnand Joseph Darnand (19 March 1897 – 10 October 1945) was a French collaborator with Nazi Germany during World War II. A decorated soldier in the French Army of World War I and early World War II, he went on to become the organizer and ''de facto ...

and the

Milice The ''Milice française'' (French Militia), generally called ''la Milice'' (literally ''the militia'') (), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy France, Vichy regime (with Nazi Germany, German aid) t ...

and used them to decipher copies of telegrams obtained from the central telegraph office in Paris. The deciphered texts were then passed on to Allied intelligence. He was arrested on 3 August 1944 at the

Gare Montparnasse Gare Montparnasse (; Montparnasse station), officially Paris-Montparnasse, one of the six large Paris railway termini, is located in the 14th and 15th arrondissements. The station opened in 1840, was rebuilt in 1852 and relocated in 1969 to ...

, and questioned harshly 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 ...

at the

Rue des Saussaies Rue des Saussaies is a short (50m long) street in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that adjoins the Ministry of the Interior. It begins at place Beauvau and finishes at place Saussaies. At number 10, lived the comte de Ségur, Napoleon I ...

. He lost consciousness under the beatings but did not divulge any names; he was subsequently held at

Fresnes Prison Fresnes Prison ('' French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes'') is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (''maison d'arrêt'') of about 1200 cells, a smal ...

. Debeaumarché was one of the so-called "77,000" (named for the prisoners' numbers, between 76,000 and 78,000), Fresnes prisoners who were transported by train from

Pantin Pantin () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2019 its population was estimated to be 59,846. Pantin is located on the edge of the city of Paris and is mainly formed by a plain ...

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

on 15 August 1944. He was moved to the underground factory of

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 ...

which produced

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

s and

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

s, and posing as an electrical engineer was put to work in the manufacture of the V-1. Maurice Naegelé, a

Kapo A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administrat ...

in the tunnel assembly section, gained the trust of Debeaumarché by relating details of the resistance movement in France. In fact Naegelé had been an agent of the Gestapo, before his deportation. Naegelé denounced Debeaumarché to SS-Oberscharführer Sander, head of surveillance at Mittelbau-Dora. Debeaumarché was arrested with others (including Naegelé) on the night of 3–4 November 1944. They were taken to the

Niedersachswerfen Niedersachswerfen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous coun ...

SD headquarters, where Naegelé attempted to beat confessions out of the other prisoners. Debeaumarché was sentenced to death on 11 November 1944, but the sentence was not carried out. Instead Debeaumarché was held in solitary confinement, accused of anti-Nazi plotting. In April 1945 he was moved to

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

, where he was liberated during the advance of Allied troops on 15 April 1945 and repatriated to France. On 1 May 1945 he marched down the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is lo ...

alongside fellow Buchenwald-captive Pierre Dejussieu-Pontcarral. After the war, he was a member of the

Provisional Consultative Assembly The Provisional Consultative Assembly (french: Assemblée consultative provisoire) was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resist ...

and had a number of high administrative functions with the ''PTT''. He served as president of the ''Union Nationale des Associations de Déportés, Internés et Familles de disparus''. He died on 28 March 1959 in

Suresnes Suresnes () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,145 as of 2016. The nearest communes are Nanterre, Puteaux, Rueil-Malmaison, Saint-Cloud an ...

, and was honored with a service in

Les Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides ( en, "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as ...

; his remains were buried in Dijon.

Honours and awards

French

*Grand Officer of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

– 1957 *

Order of Liberation The Order of Liberation (french: Ordre de la Libération) is a French Order which was awarded to heroes of the Liberation of France during World War II. It is a very high honour, second only after the ''Légion d’Honneur'' (Legion of Honour ...

* War Cross 1939–1945 with Palm and Silver Star

Foreign

Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

(United States) * Officer of the Order of the Crown with distinction (Belgium) * War Cross 1940-1945 with distinction (Belgium)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debeaumarche, Edmond 1906 births 1959 deaths People from Dijon Members of the Provisional Consultative Assembly French military personnel of World War II French Resistance members French torture victims Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp survivors Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors Companions of the Liberation Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Resistance Medal