# 1 - Marcel Reppel - From Alsace to Cluny
From the class of 1934, (class designates the year a person turns 20) Marcel began his French military service on October 15, 1935. He was appointed corporal on April 16, 1936, master corporal on January 1, 1937, and was released after his two years of active duty on October 15th, 1937 with the rank of sergeant and assigned to the Reserve. His military record reads "Campaign: Algeria from Oct. 30th, 1935 to August 20th, 1937". Due to the events of summer 1939, he returned to active duty with the French army on August 26th, 1939. In June 1940, as a sergeant in the Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens, he was engaged in the fighting in Somme and then on the Loire. He was not taken prisoner and was demobilized on July 28th, 1940.
In this photo of Maurice, wearing the uniform of infantry soldier with stripes, beret and fourragère awards, Marcel, standing, wearing a soldier's uniform of the Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens with the baggy pants specific to North African units and the traditional Fez; The number 3 on the two cuffs of the jacket indicates that this is the 3rd RTA. It is probably from the dress parade, or at least the dress uniform. This photo may have been taken during a joint leave, either in 1936-37 when Marcel was in Algeria, in a Regiment of Algerian tirailleurs, or between September 1939 and June 1940 when he was in Somme.
Marcel returned to Metz and resumed his work as an assistant-economist at the École Nationale Professionnelle where he had transferred on January 1st, 1938. He had passed the aptitude test for assistant economist on July 4th, 1938.
Rather than serve in the despised German Army, Marcel decided to cross to the free zone with his future wife Marthe Hory, born in 1922. Their journey led them to Cluny, to the National School of Arts and Crafts.
Marcel's autobiographical account of his escape
Marcel provide this detailed account of his wife Marthe and his escape on the night of May 9th, 1943:
Of Alsatian origin, I was demobilized in 1940 (from the French Army) and sent back to my village in Mussig (Bas-Rhin). I immediately resumed my duties as Accounting Secretary at the National Vocational School of Metz (I resumed the position that I held at the time of the mobilization there was no special benefit on the part of the German authorities.) I had been a member of the technical teaching staff since 1931.
In April, 1943, I was ordered to the draft review board held at the girl’s school in Metz; As a result of this board I was the given paperwork for service in the Wehrmacht (German Army). Having three brothers currently serving in the German army, I decided instead to escape to Free France accompanied by my wife future wife.
On May 6, 1943, we obtained a 3-day leave for Marthe from Town Hall of Metz, her employer, for the wedding. We obtained additional sick leave via a letter posted by a friend after my escape. The entire Lorraine staff who worked at the School in Metz where I was employed was aware of our plan to escape.
We presented ourselves to an acquaintance in Moyeuvre (town in Moselle region of NE France) who handed us over to a Polish miner involved in the illegal border crossing trade. On the night of May 9 to 10, 1943 we crossed the border on foot and through the forest between Moyeuvre and Josuf.
On the morning of May 10th, 1943 we took a bus to Nancy and we presented ourselves to the Prefecture which gave us French papers (maps, identity, etc ...) We then went to Paris where I presented myself to the Directorate of Technical Education, M. Legay Director General, who gave me a verbal assignment for the École Nationale d'Arts et Metiers at Cluny where I served as the Deputy of Economy until liberation.
In Cluny, I participated in the resistance without being a regular member. I sheltered my fourth brother (Rene) who escaped from the prison of Clermont - Ferrand where he was held by the Germans for his escape from Alsace. Rene enlisted in the Maquis of Cluny (a French Resistance Cell) where he had a very role active.
Nancy, May 10, 1954
Marcel Reppel,
Controller of the National Professional School
29 Jardiniers street Nancy, France
In November 1943 in Cluny, Marcel again saw his brother René whom he sheltered for a brief period of time. Instead of remaining hidden, René chose to find work. It was a difficult period for the young pair, during which René, employed in the Simonet farm in Collonges, was "well placed to help his brother and his wife, with food and supplies, which was much appreciated in late 1943 and early 1944."
He was also in contact with his brother Maurice, who was still in Poland and about to leave for the Russian front, incorporated by force like Julien and Edmond. In a letter dated October 5, 1943, Marcel announces to Maurice that they are waiting for a happy event - the birth of René on February 2, 44 - and expressed concern about his father-in-law, Alexis Hory, who was imprisoned at Schirmeck internment camp at that time.
He was also in contact with his brother Maurice (incorporated by force like brothers Julian and Edmond), who was stationed in Poland and about to leave for the Russian front. In a letter dated October 5th, 1943, Marcel announced to Maurice, Expect a happy event - it will be the birth of his son Rene on February 5th, 1944. He also expressed concern about his father-in-law, Alexis Hory, who was being held at the Schirmeck internment camp.
My dear Maurice,
I am taking advantage of a free moment to write you a few words. I hope you received my last letter for your party. How are you? Is your health and morale good? And how’s the life of a soldier? It must be painfully difficult to be so far from home, especially you who have a family and a nice little boy who would certainly help his daddy with all the work. It will ensure he’s a solid farmer later. I think a great deal about all this. The memory of your departure, both of you, still deeply distresses me; having to abandoning everything behind you. But we cannot change anything and have our cross to bear and keep hope for the time it will take. Let's take courage that life will continue after this war, we are not alone.
Have you heard that we are expecting a happy event for the beginning of February; I hope that all this will go well. Marthe is worried about the trials that her father, who’s almost 64 years, has to endure. It has been going on since the middle of June and we are wondering when he will be released. Her health is relatively good; Marthe has good appetite and is eating for two. Fortunately I got to work immediately, so we have vegetables. I also have a supply of flour for the winter. I have grown thin since our last separation; the clothes hang from my body. I do not feel bad but am always tired. We are all waiting for the victory and the day we will meet around a table. We will then celebrate the day with joy, with a good bottle. Wine, beer and cigarettes I am missing, but what is this, in view of our sufferings? I look forward to seeing you again, and I hope this letter finds you in good health. We embrace you,
Marcel and Marthe
Note the extreme caution of Marcel who only signed his first name and didn't specify any relationship of kinship with the addressee of the letter. The letter was not addressed to him directly, he certainly had no address for his brother. It was sent to Edmond by Jeannette who was the sister of Mimi Schwartz who in turn sent it to my father, Maurice. The letter did not mention the name of the father-in-law, Alexis Hory.
Patriotism, his involvement in the Resistance and his deportation to the sinister concentration camp of Dachau compel me to evoke here the memory of this courageous man who refused to serve under the boot of the enemy.
Alexis Hory, born September 3, 1880, was the deputy chief of the railway station in Metz since 1924. In 1942, he decided to retire rather than work for the Germans. His name was already known to the authorities back in January 42, when Rene, the baker brother, crossed the border of Lorraine with the complicity of the railway men.
Mr. Hory was present at Mussig, on April 18th, 1943, at the farewell dinner, the day before Maurice and Julien departed for the Wehrmacht. He left again the next day, thus avoiding the harassment of Elise the mother and cousin Mimi.
But events were rushing forward. Marcel and Marthe were married on May 6th 1943 and secretly left Lorraine during the night of May 9th to the 10th. Hory was arrested at his home on May 10th, spent a few weeks in the prison of the small seminary of Metz. He was then transferred to the Schirmeck camp in Alsace where he remained until December 1943. His next destination was the Dachau camp where he was interred until the end of the war as prisoner number 60065. Marcel wrote that he had been arrested for "listening to English radio, encouraging the flight of his two daughters to France and holding Germanic speeches.”
Marcel’s children have carefully preserved the last letter written by M. Hory to his brother at Flörchingen in Lorraine, it was dated July 16th, 1944 and controlled by the censorship of camp Dachau 3K.
Dachau, July 16th, 1944
Dear brother,
I want to inform you that I received with pleasure your letter dated July 8 and the twentieth package on July 11, and I thank you for it. I hope you are all well, which is also my case, I hope that the children are doing well too, at this moment it must not be very favorable there. I hope to also feel the warmth of the coal stove and also that the end is near. All this will certainly happen.
Madame Reppel is consumed with sadness. Send her a Hello from me, as well as her family. Here we still are having many beautiful days, almost always from the rain. I think that with these aerial bombardments our home often trembles; close to the station, it is badly located. Sablon has already suffered. Is Mathon at Jeannot's, have you any news of the Reppel family?
Tell them Hello and embrace them for me. I would like to write more, but I lack the place, we will talk about it later. I will end my letter and embrace you, Marie-Louise and the little one.
Alexis
During the war Marcel remained in Cluny where he supported the resistance "without being enrolled in a regular formation," it ended when Cluny was liberated on August 11th, 1944. He had to wait for the armistice to hear from his brothers. Always worried about father-in-law Hory, on February 2nd, he sent a letter to the Individual Case Service in Paris in the hope of obtaining information. We know nothing of the result given to this request.
Mr. Hory had the unheard-of fate of returning alive from Dachau's hell. Edmond testified in his memoirs that after the Liberation, "M. Hory came to Mussig to recover his health, for he was in pitiable condition." He was an Officer of the Legion of Honor, decorated with the Deporte-Resistant Medal, the Military Medal, the Croix de guerre 1939–1945 (war cross) with Palm, Mr. Hory died in 1967, 87 years old.
After the war, Marcel was recalled to the army on May 11th, 1945, and was again demobilized on November 30th, 1945.
He returned to civilian life in Metz and held various academic steward positions; at Narbonne, Aude, France in 1952, at Morez, Jura, France in 1953, before settling permanently in Nancy from September 1953 until his retirement in 1975 surrounded by Marthe and their four children.
Marcel died in Nancy on February 28th, 1987. His wife Marthe Hory Reppel died on August 29, 2012 in Pompey, France at the age of 89 years.
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