the flame
Today is the 22nd of November 1942 in Birkenau. This is Andre Filloux's birthday. No one knows about it, it makes no difference. Andre almost forgot too, it is so difficult to keep up with dates in here.
Andre is the son of Joseph Filloux. Andre was a young butcher, Joseph a postman, and Joseph's brother, Mathieu, a town hall secretary.
When they arrived, Andre became quickly sick of dysentery, he entered the Revier. His father worried, so he joined him, even though he wasn't sick himself. It turned out Joseph got sicker in the Revier, he died on the 17th of August, leaving his son alone.
Andre stayed at the Revier for a while, Rene Pignet was there as well, he lost his father Ernest recently too. Andre hoped to meet with his uncle soon, he was sent to Auschwitz.
On the 30th of April 1942, in Romorantin, South of Paris 5 members of the resistance distributed tracts at night. Surprised by the german army, they started shooting and ran away. The german were hurt, an officer died, the retaliation was terrible.
As the culprit couldn't be found, 10 communists and jewish men were to be executed as hostages. 20 more were to be deported.
Andre, Joseph and Mathieu became hostages, for no other reason than randomness. They were quiet french citizens who wished to go on with their lives, nothing more, nothing less.
In Birkenau, after his father's death, Andre did his best to integrate the kommandos. On the 21st of September, Mathieu Filloux celebrated his birthday, Andre's uncle turned 49. He died a month later. As he learned about his uncle's death, Andre soon lost all hope.
Andre died on the 4th of December 1942, he just turned 18, he was the youngest 45000.
Notes
Thank you very much for listening to this episode of 31000/45000, the story of 2 trains of french members of the resistance. My name is Matthieu Landour Engel.
This episode is about the Filloux family, father, son and uncle.
This is a short episode, so my explanations will be short as well.
I just wanted to give you a few more informations regarding the events leading to the arrest and the deportation of the Filloux family.
On the night of the 31st of April 1942, a small group of young FTP, which is a group called the francs tireurs et partisans, was surprised by the german authorities as they were putting posters on the wall of the city of Romorantin. Shots were exchanged, leading to the death of a german soldier and another one was heavily hurt. The FTP were not caught yet this led to a wave of arrests and deportations, including the Filloux.
1942 was a year where resistance groups, even though they were still a few in France, started to up their actions. Acts of sabotage increased, and the groups started also to be armed. In consequence, the retaliation of the german authorities increased as well. First with arrests, then with executions, and then with actual deportations. Those retaliations were not effective, it actually led to an increase in resistance groups.
Andre Filloux was the youngest person amongst the 45000, as the 45000 were chosen between the ages of 18 and 55, the decision was made to not select younger or older hostages. It’s important to note that he was not the youngest person in Auschwitz-Birkenau, people from all ages were sent there, a very few survived, the absolute majority of the children were sent directly to the gas chambers and died only hours after their arrival.
I have been trying to find any Filloux’s relatives, unfortunately, my research was unsuccessful. If by any chance, you know of someone related to them please let me know, I would be very pleased to get in touch and make sure the text I wrote doesn’t contain any errors.
My sources for this story are the book red triangles in Auschwitz, by Claudine Cardon Hamet, the website deportes-politiques-auschwitz.fr, memoire vive and the foundation for the memory of deportation website and the fantastic website auschwitz.org .
Thank you for your time and attention, next episode will be about Roger Menielle and the boxing matches in Birkenau.
