Assassination of king Alexandre Ier and Louis Barthou

It is in middle of afternoon that the drama was tied. Towards sixteen hours, this Tuesday October 9th 1934, the Yugoslav cruiser " Dubrovnik" entered the wearing of Marseilles. The royal mark floated high on its chechmate because it transported on its board the king of Yugoslavia, Alexandre 1st, very large friend of France. Alexandre 1st answers an official invitation of the Republic and must go in the capital to meet the President of the Council there, Gaston Doumergue, as well as the President of the Republic, Albert Lebrun. The sovereign, rather than to travel by train, like does it his wife, preferred to move in boat.

Reasons of the visit of the king

This visit is highly symbolic system for the two states. Indeed, it must show with the face of the world the indéfectible friendship between the France and the Yugoslavia. The union between the two countries appears even more invaluable vis-a-vis the rise to power of Germany hitlérienne and Italy mussolinienne which create a permanent state of tension, source of new potential conflicts. The two States have a vital need one of the other. The Yugoslavia already had, in a very recent past, too recent even, to face the expansionist aimings of Italy on the northern zone of its borders. On his side, Louis Barthou, the French Foreign Minister, hopes, by a chain of agreements surrounding the two totalitarian states, to prevent the bringing together of Italy and Germany.

The organization of the voyage

As of the first minutes, France wishes to show the glare of which she wants to mark the visit of the monarch. For that, it dispatched two of its most important ministers in the port phocéen to accommodate it, the Foreign Minister, Louis Barthou, and the Minister for the Navy, François Piétri. In the same order of idea, this visit was of so much importance for the French government which it was out of the question to leave the organization to the local authorities of it. This one was managed by people of the capital whose Sisteron Controller-General, who had the full powerss, shouldered by the Director of the National security, Jean Berthoin After all, Marseilles was only one point of passage, the final goal of the voyage being Paris.

The protection of the sovereign, thought one in high place, was to be without fault. The city was truffée police officers (1500, several company policemen of gendarmes to feet, and 200 inspector as a civilian). But this device, impressive on paper, sinned for lack of organization. A series of negligences will facilitate even more unfolding of the drama whose Marseilles was going to make the expenses.

However, the warnings had not missed. The king had escaped, a few months before, with an murder attempt, in Yugoslavia even. Powerful revolutionary organizations did not hide even any more that one of their principal goals was to assassinate the sovereign. A few days before, the noise had even run in the port phocéen that an attack prepared.

Which protection measures had one taken, except reinforcing local police manpower? France had been satisfied to put under control two hundred natives of Central Europe and to stop a score of others of it, those considered to be most dangerous. But the warning statements of the Bethouard General, Military adviser in Yugoslavia, persuaded that an attack prepared in the hexagon against King Alexandre 1st, remained dead letters.

To go to the Prefecture where it must take part in one to taste organized by the woman of the prefect, Mrs. Jouhannaud, the organizers had envisaged a very broad tour through the city: Canebière, Street Saint Ironwood, street Armény, Course Pierre Puget, Rope manufacture, deposit of sheaf to the monuments devoted to died of the East, Cornice and finally return towards the Prefecture by the two branches of Prado and the Street of Rome. A long quite dangerous tour with the sights of the threats which planed. Without counting the way which the king was to take the evening to even go to the Gare Saint Charles where awaited it the special train which was to bring it in the night in Paris.

While waiting, an impressive crowd pressed itself to see the sovereign. Windows, balconies, pavements were roofs. Canebière and the street Saint Ironwood, way which was to borrow the official procession, were black of world. Marseilles was known in the center of a major political event and everyone wanted to take part in it.

The departure of Yugoslavia

King Alexandre Ier left Zenika, a small port Yugoslavia, the October 6th 1934, on board most beautiful unit of the Yugoslav navy, the cruiser " Dubrovnik". The Marie queen accompanied it. Before embarking, they went together in a nearby convent to request, to a little entreat the morbid fear which étreint the queen when the king moves abroad.

After a few moments of prayer, they regained the quay. In this day of October, the sea is formed. The queen, suffering of a biliary lithiasis, (formation of calculations in the bile ducts) fears that the sea sickness starts a new crisis. At the last time, it decides to gain France by the train.

At the time of equipment, the charg3e d' affaires French in Yugoslavia, Mr. Knobel goes up on board to wish a good sea with the king. It cannot be prevented from saying to the king:

" - You will find in France forty million friends!

" - And perhaps also some of my keenest enemies! " retort the king.

When the " Dubrovnik" crosses the " Mouths of Bonifacio" , it finds the squadron French which awaits it to escort it to the port phocéen. The arrival is envisaged on October 9th around sixteen hours.

The arrival in Marseilles

At sixteen hours, ships of escorts of the " Dubrovnik" , in fact the " Colbert" and the " Duquesne" , greeted its entry in the port by drawing several salvos from honor while all the bells of the city, dominated by the bumblebee of Notre Dame of the Guard, are reflected to sound.

A white high-speed motorboat, with on its board the Minister for the navy, François Piétri, accompanied by the General consul of Yugoslavia, gained the Yugoslav cruiser. While going up aboard royal ship, the consul could not hide his concern, concern caused by what it had just seen, by this safety which for him seemed non-existent, by this Marseilles program that it found too charged. He tried to discourage from the king going down to ground. But the king remained intractable:

" The population awaits me. Barthou awaits me. Karageorgévitch does not owe reculer."

After the greetings of use, the delegation, according to king Alexandre 1st gained the royal high-speed motorboat which advanced with slowness towards the bottom of the Old man-Port, towards the Quay of the Belgians, with the length of which it lined up. The king jumped on the quay, flanked of his Foreign Minister Yougoslaves, Mr. Jevtitch.

The King, conscious of the importance of his visit, was tended a little. He carried the uniform of admiral of the Yugoslav navy, barred red ribbon of the Legion of Honor, a sword with gold guard and bicornuate with white brushes. He had refused to carry his waistcoat avoid-ball out of steel under his uniform, asserting that this one obstructed its movements. Forty six years old, large, thin, the sharp eyes behind glasses of the binocle type, it kept a silhouette of young man.

On the quay, Louis Barthou awaited them in company of the French delegation made up of the Admiral Berthelot and the George General who is charged to accompany the sovereign during his stay on the French territory. A little with the variation is held a delegation of the War veterans. Boats moored with let us bridge Old man-Port assembled thousands of acclamations.

Marseilles celebrated Alexandre 1st, King de Yougoslavie

After having unloaded, the delegation listened to the military music which played the Yugoslav anthem first of all then connected by the Marseillaise. An accodance with the French minister (true dash of affection to the dires of certain witnesses), sentences ritual of which this famous " How I am happy to find me in France! ". And always, according to certain close witnesses, some fast words with the ear of Mr. Jevtitch, as if the king also worried to him about the apparent insufficiency about the service about order which he discovered.

Last moments of the king

Then, it was the departure towards the Prefecture. But the organizing authorities had however decided to place the king in a black car Delage, registered 6068 CA 6, true antiquity, discovered and without protection, the roof lowered to the top of the back seats, with the contempt of any prudence in these threatening times. Roof of imprudence, the car remained immobilized of long minutes, probably to allow the photographers and the cameramen to take some additional plans. On the image filmeds at this time there for the Current events, one discovers the expression concerned about the king.

King Alexandre 1st sat down on the right, Louis Barthou on the left, and the Georges General was installed back with walk, on the folding seat. The car, as for it, was driven by the Froissac driver.

The road was opened by a police car in which had taken to seat the Director of the National security, Jean Berthoin and the Sisteron General inspector. The two men, controlled thus with more close safety of the King. At least they thought it!. It was followed of a group of ten eight mobile guards to horse, in great behavior. Came then the royal car, only escorted by one rampart symbolic system of two officers with horse, the Lieutenant-colonel Ice axe, of the 14th R.I on the right, and the Commander Vigouroux of the Mobile Guard on the left. The official convoy was closed by a group of agents cyclists. This strange provision had been decided by the authorities to allow curious to see the king. The essential concern of France was to make of this voyage a success. Consequently, only these two riders will protect the sides from the car!

At the amazing speed of eight kilometers hour, the convoy engaged on Canebière where crowd overflowed of the pavements, badly contained by a service of a suddenly failing nature. Indeed, the authorities had certainly envisaged to place an agent every two meters but, by a curious chance, these is only every five meters that they were laid out. And as almost all were turned over to see passing the procession…

Sixteen hour fifteen

To sixteen hour fifteen specifies, the procession passed in front of the Chamber of commerce, the famous Palais of the Stock Exchange. The small kiosk of the police services which rose vis-a-vis the palate, in a corner of the Public garden Puget (now Place of the De Gaulle General), was used as pedestal with curious perched on its roof. Supported nonchalamment the wall of this station, a man waited. He sprang when the royal car passed to its height. Of strong stoutness, naked head, it ran on the roadway towards the royal car while shouting: " Live the king! "

The lieutenant-colonel Ice axe, surprised, could nothing make to drive out the importunate one, that it takes in addition for a photographer. Unfortunately, this man was not one. It was one of the enemy relentless of Alexandre 1st. Contrary to what is often written, he was not member of the terrorist association of the Oustachis (the insurrectionists) and he did not have any family ties with the Croatia, it was a nationalist Macedonian, Velicko Kerin, member of the revolutionary Organization interior Macedonian.

At the time when the soldier made circle his horse to drive out the importunate one, the Georges general, head dropped, noted the direction which the convoy took. He thus did not see the man leaping on the footboard of Delage. Left hand, it was clutched with the amount of the door while line, it fired from its belt an automatic of strong gauge, a parabellum Mauser of gauge 7.65 with a committed charger of ten cartouches. Hidden on him, it carried a second weapon, a Walter of gauge 7.65 also, of which it did not have the leisure to be useful. It opened fire calmly, shooting by twice at the King who did not outline any gesture of defense. The king subsided on the line of the half-compartment, seriously wounded with the chest.

But the assassin continued his work of death. The Georges general was in his turn reached by two balls whereas it tried to interpose. Louis Barthou did not have more chance and was touched in his turn. The Piollet lieutenant-colonel had finally succeeded in making turn his mounting. He sabred the attacker, always studded with the car and which continued to empty its charger in the cockpit. Froissac, on its side, after having stopped the car, seizes the man by his jacket, trying, after a fashion, to maintain it.

But nothing seemed to be able to stop the assassin who cut down an agent which ran.

Of everywhere, the police force, the troop, the members of the procession precipitated in an indescribable disorder. One saw, running in the fray, his top hat screwed on the head, the Jevtitch minister.

Panicked, the service of order opened fire, in all the directions, in the most disordered way which is, transforming the disorder into panic. Crowd ebbed to put itself safe from the shooting. Bodies fell. A woman was mortally wounded. Other people were less seriously reached. Colonel Piollet tried to make return the order in not very protocolar terms:

" Name of God, cease fire! Bind it and carry it! "

Lastly, struck, sifted balls, several times sabred, trampled, the man collapsed without knowledge. He was immediately trailed, failing, in the small police station of the Public garden of the Stock Exchange before being transferred in the buildings from Safety where he died around ten nine hours.

The Jevitch minister jumped in Delage. He unhooked the uniform of the king to try to evaluate the gravity of the wounds, discovering his ensanglantée chest. He will say, later, to have heard mouth of Alexandre:

" Keep to me Yugoslavia! "

The death of Louis Barthou

Around the car, one was agitated to try to carry help to the casualties. The George General was transported to the military hospital. A gendarme raised Louis Barthou, hoisting it in one of the cars now empty of the procession, ordering with his driver to urgently bring it to the Hôtel-Dieu, the hospital nearest to the places of the crime. The Minister still kept a little clearness, worrying about the fate of his famous passenger: " For me, it is nothing, but the King! How is the King? " before suddenly remembering existence… of its wallet and its eyeglasses: " And my wallet and my eyeglass? Is Ah sapristi, where my eyeglass? "

Then it lost consciousness, flooded of its blood. When it arrived at the Hôtel-Dieu, it was with the anguish. One of the balls had divided its artery humérale and it had been emptied of its blood. The doctors decided to intervene surgically by binding the artery divided then by making him a transfusion. Waste of time and effort. Louis Barthou died out a few seconds later, before even as the doctors could try the least gesture to save it.

It is extremely probable that the installation of simple a garrot before its transfer to the Hospital had saved the Foreign Minister… Triste all the more sad destiny… as the ballistic report/ratio made on the ball found in the file of the car, with the site where was Louis Barthou, written in 1935 but which was not accessible to the public that in 1974 revealed that the minister had been touched indeed by this ball, a ball armor-plated out of copper, of gauge 8 mm, model 1892, gauges and model used by the French police force, and of gauge different from the two weapons of the nationalist Macedonian.

The death of the king

As for the King, Delage brought it to sharp pace not at the hospital, but with the Prefecture, passing by the Street Saint Ironwood, ignoring the crowd which did not suspect the drama which was played, avoiding without the knowledge the second terrorist who waits, a bomb hidden on him, if… a Serb officer in behavior, upright on the footboard of Delage, supports the head of the king.

The car was engulfed in the prefecture which one closed the double door In the living rooms of the Prefecture, between the spray of flowers and the drawn up dresser, where the champagne cools in the ice-trays, a small settee accommodated the failing King. But a problem arose. One lacked doctor. It is in the crowd which presses Place Saint Ironwood that the doctor ordering is Herivaux which will try, with two others confer, to save the king.

Without success however.

It is in these living rooms, in this settee that, less than one hour after its triumphal arrival on the Quay of the Belgians, Alexandre 1st expired, this October 9th 1934

When the night fell on the city, stupor, the anxiety, the horror and fear were present everywhere in a city where each one sought its share of responsibility. This death went traumatiser for a long time Marseilles which felt, despite everything, responsible fully for what had arrived.

Mass sinks in the port, its houses in bernes, its fires out of night lights, the " Dubrovnik" drew up its threatening hull, as in a dumb reproach.

The arrival of the Marie queen

When the paddle of October 10th, 1934 not at the horizon, the special train of the Marie queen of Yugoslavia enters in Station Saint Charles. As one saw, it was to join her husband directly in Paris. It had been diverted the day before at the evening, at the time of its French crossing of frontiers, in the area of Besancon.

The prefect of police of Doubs, Mr. Peretti of Rocca had presented himself in front of the queen, carrying the disastrous message. In prey with a sharp agitation (which required the intervention of a doctor with Lons-the-Salt maker), it had this sentence fraught with direction.

" My only consolation is to think that my husband died on this ground of France, the country which he liked more after his! "

A new official procession transferred the queen from the station to the Prefecture. The large living room had been transformed into burning chapel, the king and Louis Barthou putting back side by side. Shortly after the arrival of the queen, it was the turn of the President of the French Republic, Albert Lebrun accompanied by several members of the government of which Edouard Herriot and André Tardieu. They had left the day before at the evening the capital by special train.

First sanctions

Whereas the Petit Marseillais appears, fascinating him also mourning, a broad black net surrounding its " une" , and before even the arrival in Marseilles of the representative of the State, of the sanctions had been taken of which the resignation of Albert Sarraut, one of most unpopular the Minister of Interior Department of IIIe République, and that of Mr. Berthoin, director of the National security, retirement of several leaders and the suspension of the Prefect. These measurements, certainly necessary, do not stress that better the unforgivable errors.

They will have also an unexpected consequence since the Doumergue Government, private from its two strong personalities (assassinated Barthou and outgoing Sarraut) will derive towards the line while in the streets the factious leagues are agitated. Gaston Doumergue will call upon Pierre Laval as Foreign Minister and with Paul Marchandeau to replace Sarraut inside, two personalities which will reinforce the governmental drift. This drift will involve the resignation of Gaston Doumergue, on November 8th, 1934, one month at one day near after the assassination.

The president Albert Lebrun will call then upon Pierre Flandin, chief of Democratic Alliance, a right party, to form the new government made up of radicals and the moderate ones.

The departure of the skins

When at the beginning of afternoon, a hearse brought to the " Dubrovnik" the royal skin and that a new procession traversed in opposite direction the way of the day before, many were those which scoffed the deployment exaggerated at the police force, O how much goes away, at least seemingly, day before. Arrived at the pontoon, the coffin solemnly was given by the French officers to the Yugoslav officers, then hoisted aboard cruiser. After having taken leave of President Lebrun, the queen, veiled of crepe, alive image of the pain, regained with her continuation the " Dubrovnik" who took again soon the sea, framed by the cruisers " Colbert" and " Duquesne". By the laws of the sea, the late sovereign found himself finally on the ground of his fatherland. It is interesting to note that, when the cruiser was presented in Italian water to cross the strait of Messine, it was escorted ceremoniously by the Italian fleet. But, at this time there, the Italian implication was not suspected yet. This gesture however was extremely appreciated by… the British who transfer the desire of Duce there to avoid a rupture of the relations between Yugoslavia and Italy.

At the same time, at the Station Saint Charles, the draped coffin of tricolor where rested Louis Barthou was deposited in a coach bound for the capital while in the buildings of the police force, the body dislocated and sifted balls of the assassin lay. It was about Vlada Georguiev says Suck says Tchernozemsky says Petrus Kalemen.

The October 17th 1934 were celebrated in Belgrade solemn funerals of Alexandre 1st of Yugoslavia. On the course of the funeral procession an huge crowd pressed itself.

One expected an insurrection in Croatia…

Croatia did not move!

Forgotten History

After the shooting, one counted ten victims in the royal procession. In the crowd which pressed itself on the pavements, new other people were reached by stray bullets. Four of them succumbed their wounds in the following days the attack, victims forgotten of the history, small or large, innocent victims of the terrorist hydre.

For example, among the victims, was Yolande Ferris, an young girl of hardly twenty years, waitress in a large brewery of the Castellane place, and which had come in front of the Palate from the Stock Exchange to take part in this festival which honoured Marseilles. It was reached by a stray bullet and will die with the Hospital on October 11th, 1934.

One must also remember Mesdames Dumazet and Durbec, which they also had come on this Canebière to see a Sovereign and which found death whereas they had not asked anything.

Most tragic in these disappearances, it is the fact which was revealed decades later, when the ballistic reports/ratios of these deaths were finally revealed with the public: the balls which struck them were lead bullets emanating from an unknown revolver, probably from the police force, but certainly not of that of the terrorist.

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