GO TO GERMANY – NO WAY!

PIERRE, JACOU, MAURICE, FERNAND - Southern frenchmen in resistance against the NS
Short film series by Annelie Klother + Walter Kropp - 2020 - HD

1944 Southern France: on the southern edge of the Massif Central, young men flee into the mountains to escape forced labour in Germany. They become part of the resistance movement against the German occupation.

Pierre Bonnet (20:49 min.)
In the spring of 1944, Pierre Bonnet, from Ganges, was afraid that the Germans would come to get him because he was involved with resistance fighters. That's why he joins the resistance, joins the "maquis". Pierre tells of the daily life of his group in the mountains: they eat mutton and cheese - every day, they wait, they clean rifles. When it comes to the gunfight, he is very afraid.

Andre "Jacou" Bresson (20:40 min.)
In 1944, Jacou hears from friends on the sports field that the Germans are deporting young Frenchmen to forced labour. He "just doesn't want to go to Germany!" Against his family's wishes, he joins the "maquis" in the mountains. In 1944, his resistance group was supposed to stop the German soldiers in retreat. Jacou throws a hand grenade, is hit by a bullet and dies. When his sister tells his story at the age of 95, she still seems bitter. Maurice Yves Castanier (91 years old) and Fernand Rouyre (92) try to reconstruct the circumstances of his death.

Fernand Rouyre (16:32 min.)
One evening in 1944, the village policeman visits the Rouyre brothers. He tells them that he is to take them to Nimes the next morning, to the Gestapo. That very night, Fernand and his brothers leave for the mountains and join the resistance groups. Fernand, a hunter, knows how to use weapons. He took part in military conflicts with the Germans. At the end of the war, he guards German prisoners and works for the security forces.

Maurice Yves Castanier (26:06 min.)
Maurice, son of a factory owner, does not agree at all with the German occupation. But fighting with guns is not his thing. He gets in touch with the pastor and resistance fighter Olivès. Then he works against the Germans in his own way: Making contacts, organising transports to the mountains, getting food for the resistance. He pays for his activities with 5 months in Gestapo prison.

Trailer (German subtitles - English subtitles in preparation):