Our scientific and technical team
Josette DURRIEU
Honorary Member of Parliament
Council of Europe expert
Yoan RUMEAU - President Association ILPE
Professor of History
Mayor of Aventignan (caves of Gargas)
Robert BELOT - Chairman Scientific Committee
Professor of contemporary history
at Jean Monnet University
Historical and cultural context of the itinerary theme
The first difficulty in integrating escapees into the collective memory stems from a certain image associated with expatriation, exile. expatriation, exile. As far as France is concerned, there is a fairly commonly accepted idea that the that the "internal" Resistance enjoyed a legitimacy and purity of intent that the "external" Resistance could not claim. external" Resistance, as if the word "Resistance" could not be applied to the struggle from London and Algiers, "an episode in a traditional war. This opinion, based more on political rather than historical considerations. It's time to set the record straight. This is the profound meaning of our project. We need to enshrine the idea that expatriation over the Pyrenees testifies to a clear a clear determination to fight against anti-democratic Europe. In fact, that's exactly how Franco saw it even if his policy, thanks to Anglo-American pressure from November 1942 onwards, was finally to after a period of internment.
The escapees' second difficulty in making a memory stems from the fact that we are in the presence of a fragmented phenomenon, a disencompassed and de-institutionalized population flow, the product of micro-decisions. phenomenon, a disenfranchised and de-institutionalized population flow, the product of micro-decisions which, without consultation or overall plan. A former would-be escapee and inventor of the of the "Chant des Partisans", intuitively and lyrically glimpsed it twenty years after the Liberation. Maurice Druon, invited by a group of ex-evaders, welcomed this initiative, which at last made it possible to to "put face to face, to place side by side so many brothers of heart, of decision and of trial who, who, until then, had necessarily ignored each other". And he asked the question that lies at the heart of our project. ultimate reason "all these diverse gestures, heroic or everyday, all these actions, brilliant or secret into a collective movement? The creation of a European Cultural Itinerary will be, for the first time, a way of recognizing and embodying this movement.
The third difficulty arose from the countries through which the escapees had to pass: the Spanish and Portuguese regimes were dictatorships favourable to the Axis (although not belligerent). Portugal were Axis-friendly dictatorships (albeit non-belligerent). For this reason, the escapees prison and various forms of confinement, their release having been linked to pressure from the British and American governments. The memorial context is changing. There has been renewed interest in recent years. In Spain, the Diputacio de Lleida took the initiative of the "Perseguits i Salvats" program back in 2015: converting the Sort Sort prison into an interpretation center and the marking out of seven itineraries with historical and documentation translated into several languages. A monument The "Murmuration" monument, on the "route de la liberté", was inaugurated in Seilhan in 2024. In 2021, the former mayor of Lisbon had a medallion installed on the Miradouro São Pedro (between Principe Real and Chiado) depicting Jean Moulin and commemorating his visit to Lisbon in the autumn of 1941. routes is dedicated to the hero assassinated in 1943). Forgotten memories are resurfacing. Such is the case of the 11 Certification file - Council of Europe Cultural Routes Certification Cycle 2024-2025 monument, inaugurated in 2012 in Gibraltar as a tribute to the Gibraltarians evacuated during the Second World War and sent to Morocco. sent to Morocco, Madeira, Jamaica, Northern Ireland and England. Another example in France: to commemorate the role of smugglers, under-represented in the collective memory a stele was erected in 2002 in the commune of Marignac, and a signposted path has just been created. Bausen, in the Val d'Aran, as part of Franco-Spanish cross-border cooperation. cooperation between France and Spain.