Arrested in possession of weapons by the Germans in 1943, he was sentenced to death and then sees his sentence commissioned in deportation. He arrived in April 1944 at the Natzweiler-Struthof camp, where he stayed several months before being evacuated to Dachau, then to the camp of Allach, which will be released by the American army in April 1945.
Le Monde with AFP
Former resistant deported in 1944, Pierre Rolinet died on Sunday April 24, at the age of 99, announced on Monday the national friendly of deportees and families of missing from Natzweiler-Struthof and his Kommandos, unique camp concentration located in France.
“We unfortunately learned of his death, which occurred this Sunday, April 24 in the morning, a few weeks before his 100
Born in 1922 in Allenjoie (Doubs), Pierre Rolinet trained in industrial drawing at Peugeot, where he will make his entire career. During the Second World War, he refused to join the compulsory labor service (STO). Licensed, he joined a network of the Resistance, under the name of Pierre Georges.
sentenced to death
Arrested in possession of weapons by the Germans in 1943, he was imprisoned and then sentenced to death, a sentence commissioned in “nn” deportation, for Nacht und Nebel (“Night and fog”), qualifier of the III E reich for the deported resistants “condemned to disappear without leaving any trace”.
He arrived in April 1944, under the registration number 11902, at the Natzweiler-Struthof camp, where he stayed for several months. In a press release, Guillaume d’Andlau, director of the European Deported Resistant Center, said:
“The living conditions are appalling. Hunger, the blows, the convict work quickly exhaust Pierre. Sick, he is admitted to” the infirmary of the camp “. In six weeks, he lost 25 kilos. He owes his survival only to the solidarity of his comrades. “
“It was the Communists, who had organized in the camp a solidarity between French, who saved me”, explained Pierre Rolinet At the regional daily L’Est Républicain last November.
anxious to preserve memory
Evacuated to Dachau under the number 101460 in September 1944, when the Struthof closed, he was then transferred to the camp of Allach, near Munich, which will be released by the American army in April 1945.
Anxious to preserve the memory, this resident of Montbéliard (Doubs), commander of the Legion of Honor, testified until the end of his life of his experience, in schools or during visits to the Struthof camp . President of the National Association of Deportees of Natzweiler-Struthof from 2007 to 2017, he remained the honorary president.
Natzweiler-Struthof was the only Nazi concentration camp located in France, built in 1941 in Alsace then annexed to the Hitlerian Reich. About 17,000 detainees were interned there between May 1941 and September 1944. He was at the head of a network of 53 neighboring annex camps (or “Kommandos”, according to Nazi terminology) – in total, 52,000 people y were imprisoned and nearly 22,000 died there. The Natzweiler-Struthof camp was one of the most murderers of the Nazi system, outside the extermination camps. He also housed a gas chamber where 86 Jews were killed.