Massacre of Ballersdorf

It is naturally in the South of the Alsace, more close to the Suisse, that the incorporation of force met the most violent opposition. To flee by the the Vosges risky since beyond one found oneself in occupied territory where the Germans could still act, once was crossed the border Suisse one was with the shelter. As of the July 7th 1942, before the advertisement of its decision, the Gauleiter Wagner had already taken an ordinance against what it called “the illegal emigration out of Alsace”. “The goods of the escaped prisoners, announced one, will be confiscated and their parents and those which live with them will be transplanted in Germany! ” But that did not prevent escapes since the September 16th 1942 it instituted along the Swiss border a closed area ( Sperrbezirk ) of three kilometers, still widened the next on December 10th.

After Stalingrad and the incorporation of new classes on January 31st, 1943 the movement intensifies and on February 10th, 1943, these are 182 refractories which manage to pass to Switzerland. The following day 86 others follow them. But these desertions exasperate the Germans who redouble vigilance and, two days later, a group of 19 young people left for the majority Ballersdorf runs up against frontier guards between Bissel and Seppois-le-Bas, of the shots is exchanged during which a German police officer is killed. Three young people who are taken are immediately shot. The others flee, but are stopped as of the following day on their premises and thirteen of them are shot on February 16th with the Struthof after a summary judgment, another will follow them a little later, it will ultimately have there one survivor who will have succeeded in hiding then to pass to Switzerland. As of on February 15th, all the families of shot were imprisoned with the camp of Schirmeck, then transplanted later in Germany as forced workers.

Documentary references

Eugene Riedweg, Them In spite of us , Editions of the Rhine (1995)
Andre Moser, Of the farm to the court , Editions of the Rhine (1982)
Philip Charles Farwell Bankwitz, Alsatian Autonomist Leaders 1919-1947 , ED. Univ Pr off Kansas (1978)

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