Header photo French POWs. © Bundesarchiv, Bild 1011-055-1592-05A / Weber, Robert / CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Rescuing French POWs
Pierre Schon and his resistance friends helped many French POWs who had escaped from captivity in Germany, hiding them first in safe houses or hideaways in the forest, giving them new identities and taking them over the border from Luxembourg into Belgium. From there, eventually back to France. Belgium, especially the Ardennes, was not as strictly controlled by the Nazis as Luxembourg and there was more space to hide.
After France surrendered in 1940, almost 1.8 million French soldiers were captured and many sent to camps across Germany. A large number of French POWs were placed in Arbeitskommandos (work detachments) in small towns near the Luxembourg border. These were sometimes lightly guarded, making escape attempts more feasible, especially with help from locals and the resistance.
Stalag XII-D – Trier was just 15–20 km from Luxembourg’s eastern border. It was a major hub for POWs from the Western Front, especially early in the war. The proximity to Luxembourg made these camps viable points for escape attempts, especially when POWs were sent outside the main camp to work on farms, in factories, or railway construction. This gave POWs a chance to reach the border on foot or by train. It is estimated that approximately 70,000 French POWs escaped from German captivity.
From 1941 to 1944 there was a steady flow of escaped French POWs passing through the hands of the LPL in Clervaux as well as other resistance movements in Luxembourg.
After the Gestapo issued the arrest warrant for Pierre and he fled Luxembourg in April 1943, he operated on the Belgian side of the border taking the POWs to the network of safe houses and farms operated largely by Jean Boever in Marloie. From here they were resourced, given new papers and either handed over to the French resistance, found work under their new identity or became freedom fighters and joined the Maquis.
However, when Pierre`s friend and fellow people smuggler Ernest Delosch was denounced, arrested and executed in February 1944, Pierre was obliged on several occasions to cross back over the border into Luxembourg to accompany French prisoners and Luxembourg conscripts on the run along the escape route to Belgium at even greater personal risk.
Bringing allied airmen to Southern France
It is said that Pierre Schon accompanied British airmen to the south of France, where he handed them over to local resistance members in Draguignan. From there, the local resistance arranged for the airmen to be taken across the border into Spain, either to British-controlled Gibraltar or to neutral Portugal, for eventual repatriation to England. Fluent in French, with a good command of English and experienced in travelling under false identities, Pierre likely carried out this mission in coordination with Service Zéro, which operated in Belgium.
By 1941, Service Zéro had established clandestine courier lines across Belgium and France. Originally used to smuggle messages and intelligence reports to London, these routes were soon adapted to move Allied airmen and escapees. Augustin Roblain, a radio operator active in the Ardennes for Zéro, connected Jules Dominique with the head of the Zéro network and since 1942 they remained in constant contact. Leading members of the LPL in Brussels were also in contact with the movement, including Alphonse Rodesch and Ferdinand Fischbach.
During the airmen’s journey, Pierre and his charges would have been assisted by the French Resistance, who provided safe houses along the way, for example in Besançon, Lyon and Grenoble, key stops on the train route south from Brussels.
After the war, during family holidays in France, Pierre returned to visit the resistance members he had worked with in Draguignan. He was always welcomed with open arms, warm embraces, a hearty meal, and lively conversations reminiscing about the days in the Resistance. In the 1960s he even purchased a piece of land in Draguignan at a public auction as a sign of his attachment to the area.
Accompanying the French resistance
The F.F.I. (Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur) was formed in 1944 by uniting various French Resistance groups under a single command structure. This unification was orchestrated by General Charles de Gaulle. In 1944, during the lead-up to and aftermath of the D-Day landings, the united French Resistance F.F.I. carried out widespread sabotage operations, including derailing and blowing up trains across France. These actions were coordinated with the Allies as part of Operation Plan Vert, which aimed to disrupt German logistics and reinforcements heading to Normandy. These efforts were crucial to the success of the invasion and were often coordinated with Allied command through the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the US OSS (Office of Strategic Services), forerunner to today`s CIA.
In summer 1944 with allied forces advancing across France, Pierre Schon accompanied members of the French resistance to derail two trains in the area of Metz in the Lorraine region to help slow down German supplies to the front. He had already established contact with the F.F.I. through his efforts to assist escaped French POWs. Following the war, Pierre would meet his French resistance friends and they would reminisce about what a huge noise the trains had made as they derailed and how they had, as a bonus, infuriated the regional SS commander. No doubt the activity had been well coordinated with the allies` and the resistance command structure.
Working with the FFI to repatriate POWs
After the war Pierre Schon was active in various refugee relief efforts and repatriation activities, both military and civil. He worked together with the F.F.I. to help repatriate French POWs returning from all over Europe who passed through Luxembourg on their way back to France.
Trip to the landing beaches in Normandy
On 3 July 1947 Pierre received a letter from the French Interior Minister expressing the gratitude of the French government for the assistance he had given to French POWs who had escaped from Germany. He was awarded the Médaille de la reconnaissance française (Medal of French Recognition). The medal was conferred for acts of courage and devotion during the war, including support for refugees, and for resistance activities.
Shortly thereafter, a ceremony was held in Normandy on the site of the D Day landings to commemorate the efforts of resistance fighters and to present them with various medals. Pierre set off by coach on the long drive together with other Luxembourgers who had also been decorated. He was undoubtedly proud that his contribution and sacrifices were being recognised.
As he stood by the beach, his mind must have wandered back to the Allied troops landing just a few years earlier on that same beach to heavy German artillery and machine gunfire and to his own small contribution at the time as he worked to undermine the German war effort hundreds of kilometers away in the Belgian Ardennes.
