MATHIEU'S PROSECUTION - HIS SENTENCE AND EXECUTION
On Friday November 17, 1944, one year after the Big Raid, George Mathieu's lawsuit began in the Clermont Ferrand Court of Justice. I attended it. Our comrades he had helped to arrest on the day of the Big Raid were then still captive in various concentration camps. Those who survived didn't come back until May 1945.
| A large assistance, made
up for the greatest part of students and families of deportees, filled
the 1st room of the Clermont-Ferrand Law courts. Mathieu was brought
in, his hands in shackles. His complexion was sullen, his eyes had an
empty gaze. Nothing remained of his former self, the
bearing of a military chief, a little haughty, who met Feuerstein and
myself only to ask in a laconic tone, to be provided as soon as
possible with a supply of forged identity cards. As Mathieu entered the room, the crowd started to howl and wanted to hack it; gendarmes had to protect him. His lips could be seen shacking in a jerked movement which did stop during the whole lawsuit. The interrogation was very long, the counts of indictment were numerous, important and detailed, in an attempt to reconstitute Mathieu's route since October 23, 1943, when he was first arrested by the Germans in Rochefort Montagne, one month before the Big Raid. Mathieu muttered inaudible answers, punctuated by the furious shouts of the floor. President Vialatte had a hard time trying to restore order. The only distinct words one could manage to hear from Mathieu were: "I agreed to work for German for fear of reprisals against my girlfriend, who was pregnant and who had been arrested the day before me. But I always did as little harm as I could". These last allegations were reduced to nothing with the endless procession of witnesses whose token of evidence were more overpowering the ones than the others. On the day of the Big Raid, Mathieu had betrayed comrades who had so far escaped the grip of the Gestapo thanks to forged identity papers. A Mrs Dumas testified that her son, who had got a forged identity card from Mathieu, was about to pass the German checking. But Mathieu then declared: "You know well it's forged, I gave it to you myself". Other witnesses reported the exactions and the plundering made by Mathieu and his assistants of the French Sonderkommando during searchings and arrests. They insisted on Mathieu's violence and sadism against his victims during the interrogations. Thus Charles Caudron (Commander Bengali) of the Mithridate network reported that Geissler, chief of the Vichy Gestapo, had been amazed at Mathieu's violence and cruelty as he questioned Lieutenant-colonel Jacques Boutet, of the O.R.A. Geissler had said: "I seldom saw a man who calls himself an officer to press so hard upon another French officer." The indictment was pronounced by the Chaudoye Police chief. He claimed for death penalty, and added this was too weak a punishment for Mathieu. Cheers and applause underlined this conclusion. It was Mr Planche, Barrister, who had the heavy task of being Mathieu's counsel. He was the President of the Clermont-Ferrand Bar, and he was appointed "d'office" (i.e. on a charity basis) since no lawyer had volunteered to undertake the Mathieu case. Mr Planche was an experienced lawyer, in his fifties, who had a thick greying moustache and still wore the already old fashioned judicial cap. Mr Planche pleaded mental deficiency. Mathieu, according to him, was psychologically out of unbalance, and should have been subjected to a mental expertise. He ended his speech by claiming for Mathieu: "Forced labour, more terrible than death." The jury withdrew for deliberation, then returned. Their answer was "yes" to the 99 questions: Mathieu was sentenced to death. The verdict was welcomed by the applause and the cheering of the crowd. Mathieu was shot on December 12, 1944. |
 La Montagne (Saturday
November 18, 1944)
(click on the picture to wiew page one of the newspaper) |
Mrs Mathieu and Bresson were they also translated before the Court of Justice. Condemned to death, their sorrow was commuted to forced work has perpetuity. They were released in 1951.