Messages personnels de Maurice Loupias

Rédigé par Alain dans la rubrique Document et livre 

I was recommended recently a book about the Résistance in the south of the Dordogne entitled ‘Messages personnels’ by Bergeret (Maurice Loupias) and Herman Grégoire and I have been able to track down the ‘édition du maquis’ version of the book printed in 1945 of which 500 copies were printed and numbered.

It’s an excellent version, which originally would have come with a bookmark made from cotton from an allied parachute and stamped with the official seal of l’état-major clandestine de Dordogne-Sud. Sadly that has long gone but my copy has never been read and I had to cut a lot of the pages free at the top. Buying books nearly seventy years old often means they are too delicate to read cover to cover. Thankfully, no such problem with this copy.

The author, Maurice Loupias dit "Bergeret" entered into the Résistance in 1941 and in 1942 helped set up the Armée Secrète in his region. In May 1943 be was being searched for by the Germans and he went in to hiding. By the end of May he became the head of the A.S. in the Dordogne Sud.

Roux & Bergeret

His wife was among those who helped the Professeur Fontaine at the Service de Santé. On the 21^st of August 1944 a jubilant "Bergeret" entered at the head of le corps-franc Dagréou to liberate Bergerac. "Pour les Bergeracois, la liberté, c’est la vie."

The book has some beautiful illustrations by Jean Vauthier of which there are photos of some of them below.