European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Louis Meunier and I were very close. I was also very close to his family.

We knew each other from the times of the Communist Youth Movement.

Our group did not only consist of young communists, but of young Catholics as well,

or of people that hadn’t been affiliated to any group.

His death affected me enormously.

The day he was arrested by the Nazis, along with his father, we had separated just a quarter of an hour earlier.

The collaborating government, the mayor of the municipality, had already been arrested by the resistance

and we were supposed to organize the take-over of the City Hall

and the establishment of the Liberation Committee for the following day.

This all happened on August 20th 1944. The Germans were still in Nanterre.

Louis Meunier, his father and I had met to ensure the security of the event.

As I said, we split.

I went to meet comrades, with whom I went to Pont Neuilly to meet the old mayor of Nanterre,

Raymond Bardet, who was in the Résistance – he was one of the leaders of the resistance of the railroad workers.

We were to protect him during his return to the City Hall for the Council of the Liberation Committee next day.

So we separated, and while I left to perform my task,

Louis Meunier and his father met one of the comrades that had been imprisoned on July 14th, 1940.

He had just been liberated, as the prison guards had begun to open the doors of the prison and let the resistance fighters escape.

They lost time on this encounter.

Then the last Germans who were exploding the equipment from the aviation camp before leaving passed by and arrested them.