Éloise — “Les Sans-Pardon” sign, the Semine Secret Army company

Le monument

14 juin 1944, au carrefour de la Croisée. Huit hommes du groupe de Vanzy tiennent tête pendant plus de deux heures à une colonne de 25 camions allemands qui roule vers Bellegarde. Le soir même, Éloise paie le prix fort : des fermes brûlent, des civils sont fusillés. De ces représailles, les maquisards de la Semine tirent leur nom, les Sans-Pardon. Leur histoire commence pourtant bien avant, dès l'été 1940, sur ce plateau frontalier où un maire, ancien poilu, choisit de ne pas plier.

The circumstances

In June 1940, German troops, held back by the Army of the Alps along the Upper Rhône and at Fort l’Écluse, were unable to take control of the border between Haute-Savoie and Switzerland. When the armistice created a German-occupied zone, Haute-Savoie was the only department in the remaining free zone with access to Switzerland, a neutral country: a valuable route for smuggling out escapees, combatants (particularly airmen), Jews, and others.

The Semine plateau became a strategic area during the Occupation because the Ain department was divided in two: most of it remained in the free zone, while the Pays de Gex, bordering Switzerland, was declared a restricted occupied zone, as were six municipalities in Haute-Savoie: Arcine, Chevrier, Clarafond, Éloise, Vulbens and Saint-Germain-sur-Rhône. However, on 24 August 1941, these municipalities were returned to the free zone, and then became part of the Italian occupation zone from 11 November 1942.

This particular administrative situation and the proximity of the Bugey and Valromey maquis encouraged the emergence of Resistance movements.

Robert Gassilloud
organises the local Resistance from 1940

As early as June 1940, Robert Gassilloud, mayor of Éloise and a First World War veteran, had ammunition from a depot abandoned by French troops moved to a safe place. He organised clandestine crossings and carried mail across the Rhône using unguarded crossing points (“Pertes du Rhône”, the hamlet of Essertoux and its footbridge connecting it to Arlod). Under his authority, the town hall of Éloise provided identity papers and ration cards.

In 1943, Robert Gassilloud opposed the introduction of the Compulsory Labour Service and decided that no man from his municipality would answer the call:

He encouraged young men who refused compulsory labour to evade their summons while he confronted the authorities. The first group of locally based Resistance fighters in the Semine was thus formed in July. Contacted by Pierre Ruche, who was organising the Secret Army (A.S.) between Saint-Julien, Cruseilles and Seyssel, Gassilloud took charge of the sector with Marius Marmonnier and Émile Curtenaz from Vanzy, Coppier from Clarafond, Jean Roset from Saint-Germain-sur-Rhône, Auguste Menu from Challonges, and Marius Giet and Charles Métral from Bassy.

Together, they formed a company of 89 Resistance fighters divided into three sections: the Ace of Clubs, the Ace of Diamonds and the Ace of Hearts.

Resistance actions
on the Semine plateau

In January 1944, the Simon corps franc, a group of fighters from the Glières sector, took refuge in Saint-Germain-sur-Rhône, where they were welcomed by Robert Gassilloud. Their leader, François Servant, was eventually captured by Vichy forces. Other groups of Resistance fighters also came to the Semine to lie low.

In 1944, several container drops at Éloise supplied weapons to local Resistance fighters and those in the neighbouring Ain department: on 5 March at Bois d’Arlod, on 28 April at Beaumont and on 12 August, when 54 containers were dropped.

Later, the Sans-Pardon, already armed, helped protect the major Glières parachute drop of 1^er August 1944.

During the fighting for the liberation of the Genevois, from 15 August onwards they were tasked with controlling the Frangy-Bellegarde road. On 16 and 17 August, they moved into the Chevrier-Valleiry sector to take part in the fighting at Pont Carnot. Georges Deconfin from Saint-Germain-sur-Rhône, Louis Rey, Georges Perrier from Éloise, Pierre Guinard from Bellegarde and Félix Borget from Chêne-en-Semine lost their lives, but the Germans were driven back.

On 18 August, the Genevois was finally liberated. On 19 August, the whole of Haute-Savoie became free through the efforts of the French internal Resistance alone. The actions of the Semine Resistance fighters during the conflict also depended on the unwavering involvement of women, whose role has too often been overlooked. Families and village communities stood united, with no reported acts of denunciation.

June 1944, the Semine company
takes the name Sans-Pardon

Following the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, orders were issued from London to mobilise the Resistance networks of the French Forces of the Interior, calling them into action to tie down German forces.

The Ain maquis led by Fenestraz and Henri Romans-Petit succeeded in taking control of Bellegarde and Fort l’Écluse on 10 June. The Germans reacted quickly and sent reinforcements to retake the town.

On 14 June, a convoy of 25 trucks belonging to the German advance guard headed towards Bellegarde and, at La Croisée, encountered eight Resistance fighters from the Vanzy group commanded by Marius Marmonnier. They held up the Germans for more than two hours before withdrawing, leaving three men dead: Louis Ducenti, Gaston Ninet and Camille Tomasi from Éloise. Reinforcements from Bellegarde came to their aid, and the Resistance fighters held their positions throughout the day, but lost another two men and suffered around twenty wounded.

The enraged Germans finally entered Éloise and carried out brutal reprisals against the civilian population: Adèle Perrier was murdered, the Mermet and Dumont farms were set on fire, Angelo Zanardo and Francis Zanardo were executed by firing squad, while Joseph Dupraz and Albert Durand, members of the Ain A.S., were killed.

The Germans continued their looting in the hamlets of Fiolaz, Bois d’Arlod and Malbrande. The following day, Bellegarde, overwhelmed on all sides, was retaken by the Germans; the Resistance fighters withdrew into the mountains.

In memory of the atrocities and looting committed in Éloise, the maquis fighters of the Semine A.S. took the name Sans-Pardon.