Pierre Paoli
Pierre-Marie Paoli, also know as Lamote, (1921 - 194 ) was a French agent in the Gestapo police. The Gestapo (Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe.
Born on 31 December 1921 in Aubigny-sur-Nere, France to a middle class family. Pierre Paoli attended public school. In October of 1937 he got a job with the town of Aubigny, Allier as a clerk. Later he became an the town's administrative assistance and later on 1 May 1938, became the Treasury of the town Mehun-sur-Yèvre, at age 17 years old. He departed from his family for the first time to take the job at Mehun-sur-Yèvre.
When war was declared in September 1939, he decided to change his life he returned to Aubigny for a short time, he then moved to Paris were he worked odd jobs. One of his odd job was to be bicycle messenger on behalf of the Nazi German Admiralty. In January of 1942 Paoli moved to Bourges. On 31 March 1943 he was hired as interpreter at the Gestapo HQ in Bourges. The Germans offered him a room in the local Gestapo HQ to stay at. He was put in head of Gestapo section 4A over Berry province, the department that fights against the communists. But in a short time, he is given complete freedom of action and autonomy to hunt anyone thought to be anti-Nazi. He then became a trusted agent of the SD -Sicherheitsdienst, he led numerous operations against the French Resistance. He now wore a SS German uniform, with the rank of SS Scharführer and was given German citizenship. He arrested over 300 people and deported many to to camps. He was know for his cruelty and his torturer during interrogation. He striped his victims and seize their valuables. He even tortured Senator Marcel Plaisant. Anyone arrested by Paoli were either killed by Gestapo in Bourges or departured to a Nazi concentration camps. [1]
The French Gestapo also was part of the roundup of Beffe on 30 April 1944. It was two nights of raid conducted on 21 and 22 in July of 1944. The Jewish refugees, 71, were arrested sent to Saint-Amand-Montrond. Over the following days, he participated in the killing of 36 Jews on the site of the abandoned Guerry farm, where then their bodies were thrown into three wells.[2][3][4][5]
As Allies troop were now near by, Paoli evacuated Bourges on 6 August 1944. He was arrested by British forces at Flensburg near the Danish boarder on 16 May 1945. He was handed over to French authorities in January of 1946 and brought back to Bourges for trail.
He was brought to trial as traitor in May of 1946, his nicknamed in the town was "the monster" and "sinister Paoli,". There was public outrage over the exposure of his atrocities. At his trial he declared: "I'm not French, but German". He was sentenced to death and on 15 June 1946 he was executed in Bourges for his crimes.
See also
References
- ^ Torture and Democracy, By Darius Rejali,page 114
- ^ cjhn.ca, Caskets of victims of the tragedy of Guerry’s wells (graphic material) – 1944.
- ^ cjhn.ca, People mourning for the tragedy of Guerry’s wells (graphic material) – 1944
- ^ Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944 By Ian Ousby. page 275
- ^ cjhn.ca, Man getting out of one of the Guerry’s wells (graphic material)
- Jean Lyonnet: The Case Paoli (Chassaing Publishing, 1964 ). Testimony by Marc Toledano Paoli, in the account he devotes to the monk Alois Stanke, charitable German jailer of the prison Bourges: The Franciscan of Bourges ( Flammarion, 1969 ).
- The historical novel of Jacques Gimard: Cheat Death, secret notebooks Pierre Paoli, secret Gestapo agent ( Editions Qui Lit Vit, June 2011) - The book draws on the sources of court records of the trial Paoli and restores testimonials unpublished collected from people who surrounded this Gestapo Berry.
- librherry.canalblog.com Aarchive: